Twins Minor League Reports (May 3): Vargas Vaults Miracle

Friday was another good day for the two Minnesota Twins Class A affiliates while the Red Wings and Rock Cats fell short. In some pretty exciting Twins Daily news, our frequent contributor AJ Pettersen tweeted the following after tonight’s Miracle game, “I'm headed to Portland, Maine tomorrow to join the @RockCats!” Congratulation to AJ! Who knows… maybe we’ll get a great blog post telling us all about it!!

Check back tomorrow morning for the April Twins minor league relief pitcher of the month article.

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Rochester Red Wings 1, Columbus Clippers 5

Box Score

Kyle Gibson was back on the mound. The Clippers bats were definitely hot this day. Gibson gave up five runs on 11 hits in 4.2 innings. He didn’t walk any and struck out just one. Shairon Martis then threw 2.1 innings and gave up two hits. Rafael Perez made his first appearance of the year and threw a 1-2-3 inning.

Clete Thomas remained hot. He went 2-4 with his fifth stolen base. He is now hitting .385 on the season. Chris Colabello went 2-4 with his sixth double.

New Britain Rock Cats 4, Portland Sea Dogs 5

Box Score

Pat Dean pitched well again. The lefty gave up two runs on five hits in 6.1 innings. He walked none and struck out six. Bruce Pugh came on and gave up a run on two hits and got just two outs. Aaron Thompson pitched a scoreless eighth inning. Michael Tonkin came on for the ninth. He got two outs, but with a couple of runners on, Antoan Richardson made an error that allowed both runners to score and the Rock Cats fell.

Josmil Pinto went 2-3 with a walk and two RBI. Danny Ortiz was 2-4. Curt Smith homered for the second time this season.

Ft. Myers Miracle 6, St. Lucie Mets 0

Box Score

For the second time this season, the Miracle were able to topple the Mets top pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard. Kennys Vargas led the way by going 4-4 with two doubles. He now has nine two-baggers. Drew Leachman went 2-3. Miguel Sano hit his eighth double.

Matt Summers started for the Miracle. The right-hander threw five shutout innings. He gave up four hits, walked one and struck out six. Adrian Salcedo came on and threw two scoreless innings, giving up one hit. Zack Jones gave up a hit and two walks, but no runs, over two innings.

Cedar Rapids Kernels 8, West Michigan 6

Box Score

Jorge Polanco led the Kernels offense. He went 3-5 with his seventh and eighth doubles and drove in three runs. Jhonatan Arias was 3-4 with his first double. Adam Walker was 2-5 with his first stolen base. Niko Goodrum went 1-3 with two walks. Byron Buxton was 1-4 with a walk; he has continued his streak of getting on base at least once in every game.

Mason Melotakis started and gave up four runs (2 earned) on eight hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out three. Manuel Soliman gave up a run on one hit and one walk in 1.2 innings. He struck out four (of the five outs he got). David Hurlbut gave up a run on two hits and recorded his second save.

A LOOK AHEAD to Saturday

The Rochester Red Wings will send Liam Hendriks to the mound to face Columbus at 6:05 (all times central). At noon, Trevor May will be on the mound in Portland for the New Britain Rock Cats. Tom Stuifbergen will look to continue his impressive 2013 when he takes the mound for the Miracle at 5:05. Tyler Duffey will make his first non-Sunday start for Cedar Rapids when they play in South Bend at 6:05.

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