Twins Minor League Report (5/14): Teilon Serrano's Big Day

Happy Birthday to Brian Dozier and Justin Morneau! May 15th! No, I'm not one that pays attention to birthdays of ballplayers, but The Young'n happened to be born on May 15th as well. On Thursday night, she graduated (with honors) from a Minnesota trade school. On Friday, she turns 20. Yup, proud dad who continues to realize that he is getting old.

So, I apologize for posting this a little late tonight and maybe not being as detailed as I try to be. I definitely welcome questions and comments about Thursday's games and encourage anyone who was at the games to give us reports too.  

TRANSACTIONS   
Early on Thursday morning, the Twins optioned OF Matt Wallner and RHP Travis Adams and recalled UT Ryan Kreidler and RHP Zebby Matthews. Zebby pitched really well.  

OF Kala’i Rosario was placed on the 7-Day Injured List. 

Fort Myers C Enrique Jimenez began his rehab in the FCL on Thursday. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul, Columbus 
Box Score
The rains came down in St. Paul and Mother Nature won on this night. The two teams will attempt to play a doubleheader on Friday at CHS Field. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 7, San Antonio 0
Box Score
Shutouts are always good. They’re rare, especially in the minor leagues. Let’s start there. Sam Armstrong started and tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked one, and had four strikeouts. Ricky Castro came on and threw three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked two, and had four strikeouts. Jaylen Nowlin and William Fleming each threw a scoreless innings.  

The Wind Surge bats scored their seven runs in the middle inning. They put a “2” on the scoreboard three times. 

In the third inning, Kyle DeBarge came to the plate with the bases loaded. He drove in two runs with his fourth double of the season. 

Caleb Roberts led off with his first home run since joining the Surge over the weekend. 

It was DeBarge again in the fifth inning. He hit another double which drove in Ricardo Olivar with the fourth run. DeBarge later scored on an Andrew Cossetti sacrifice fly to make it 5-0. 

Finally, in the top of the sixth, Garrett Spain walked with two outs and scored when Billy Amick launched his 11th home run of the year. 

DeBarge went 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI. Amick was 2-for-5 with his fifth double, 11th homer, and two RBI. He was also hit by a pitch early in the game. Olivar went 2-for-3 with a walk. 

Check out the Top 20 Padres Prospects according to our sister site, Padres Mission. 

KERNELS CHRONICLE 
Cedar Rapids 3, Fort Wayne 11
Box Score
Ivran Romero made the start for the Kernels and took one for the team. He gave up 10 runs (9 earned) on nine hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings. Nolan Santos came in and gave up one run on two hits and three walks over 3 2/3 innings. He struck out three batters. Adam Falinski struck out four batters and had one walk over two scoreless, hitless innings. 

Miguel Briceno had two of the Kernels’ five hits, his second and third doubles. Jay Thomason went 1-for-2 with two walks, a triple, and two RBI. 

Check out the Top 20 Padres Prospect according to our sister site, Padres Mission. 

MIGHTY MATTERS
Ft. Myers 0, Bradenton 6
Box Score  
The Mussels lineup was quiet on Thursday night in Bradenton. They managed just five hits in the game, but they also had five walks. The batters combined for 15 strikeouts. Henry Kusiak had two walks. Harry Genth and Byron Chourio each went 1-for -3 with a walk. Genth stole his 11th base. 

Ramon Villanueva made the start. The 19-year-old gave up two runs on five hits and a walk in three innings. He had two strikeouts. Jonathan Stevens gave up four runs on four hits and recorded four outs. Kolten Smith worked the final 3 2/3 innings and He gave up just one hit, walked none and struck out four batters.   

COMPLEX CHRONICLE
FCL Twins 5, FCL Rays 2
Box Score  
Yordi Jose started and gave up two runs (1 earned) on two hits. In 3 2/3 innings, he walked four and had two strikeouts. Rainer Marin kept an inherited runner from scoring. He recorded four outs and gave up no runs, two hits and no walks. Geremy Villoria came on and the youngster gave up three hits and a walk, but no runs, over 1 2/3 innings. Hendry Chivilli recorded the final out of the seventh inning. He tossed two more scoreless innings to record his second save of the year. He walked two and had three strikeouts. 

The best news of the day is probably that catcher Enrique JImenez made his first appearance of the year, a rehab appearance. He has missed most of spring training and the first six weeks of the season with a fractured finger. You recall he came to the Twins last summer from the Tigers organization in exchange for RHPs Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak. In this game, he went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. The results obviously don’t matter, but it’s great to see him starting to get games. He caught the first five innings before being replaced by Miguel Caraballo.

Down 2-0 going to the bottom of the fourth, the Twins cut their deficit in half. Jhomnardo Reyes walked, and Luis Fragoza singled. Teilon Serrano drove in Reyes with the run. 

The Twins took the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Jose Barrios and Yovanny Duran singled. With two outs, Jhomnardo Reyes reached on a two-base error that drove in both runners. 

The bottom of the sixth inning began with back-to-back doubles by Fragoza and Serrano. The latter scored on a Ricardo Pena single to make it 5-2. 

Serrano led the offense with a 4-for-4 day with his first double and first stolen base. Coming into the game, he was just 1-for-23 with a triple and 14 strikeouts this season. Fragoza went 2-for-4 with his third double. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Teilon Serrano (FCL Twins): 4-for-4, 2B(1), R, 2 RBI, SB(1)

Pitcher of the Day 
Sam Armstrong (Wichita): 4 IP, H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 51 pitches, 31 strikes (60.8%)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today.

#1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (left shoulder)
#2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - Rained out
#3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (thumb)
#4 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch
#5 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4 (batted second, played catcher). 
#6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#7 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4 (batted first, played SS)
#8 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#9 - LHP Kendry Rojas (Minnesota) - 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 43 pitches, 23 strikes (53.5%)
#10 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - No Game Scheduled.
#11 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List
#12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch                                         
#13 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - Rained Out.
#14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-4, 3K (batted sixth, played SS).
#15 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Play. 
#16 - RHP Ryan Gallagher (St. Paul) - No Game
#17 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - No Game. 
#18 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 Day Injured List (right elbow sprain)
#19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4 (batted third, played CF)
#20 - 2B/SS/CF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 3-for-5, 2-2B(5), R, 3 RBI, K (batted fourth, played SS)

UPCOMING PROBABLES
Friday, May 15:
Columbus @ St. Paul (4:37 pm CT) - LHP Aaron Rozek (0-0, 0.00 ERA, RHP Mike Paredes (2-1, 4.58 ERA)
Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 pm CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-3, 4.28 ERA)
Fort Wayne @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 pm CT) - RHP Michael Ross (0-3, 4.29 ERA)
Ft. Myers @ Bradenton (5:30 pm CT) - TBD
FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (11:00 am CT) - TBD  

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 20-24
St. Paul Saints: 21-19
Wichita Wind Surge: 17-18
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 20-16
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 20-16
FCL Twins: 5-4
DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) 

Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!

Interested in learning more about the Minnesota Twins' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!