Twins Minor League Report (5/31): Mighty Mussels Display Strong Arms and Bats in Blowout Win

On the final day of May, the Mighty Mussels put together their best all-around game. The Kernels got a strong start, a big homer, but did they hang on? And for those who were worried... and you'll see this again... A hit streak continues. 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 31-26 (Tied with Cleveland for 2nd in AL Central, six games behind Detroit.)
St. Paul Saints: 28-25  (Tied with Iowa for 5th place in the International League West Division, 4.0 games behind Nashville.)
Wichita Wind Surge: 25-25 (4th in Texas League North, 1.0 games behind Springfield, NW Arkansas, Arkansas.)
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 29-20 (2nd place in the Midwest League’s West Division, 1.5 games behind Quad Cities.)
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 22-28 (6th place in the Florida State League’s West Division, 7.5 games behind Lakeland.)
FCL Twins: 12-9 (2nd in FCL South, 2.5 games back of the FCL Rays. 

TRANSACTIONS
The Twins activated OF Matt Wallner from the IL after his 10-day rehab stint with Fort Myers. OF DaShawn Keirsey, Jr was optioned to St. Paul. 

Connor Prielipp has been activated from the Development List and is scheduled to start on Sunday for Wichita. 

RHP Teague Conrad was placed on the FCL Twins roster. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 2, Omaha 5
Box Score
Ryan Fitzgerald  homered in the ballpark he called home a season ago, but it wasn’t enough for his Saints club on Saturday.   

Down 1-0 in the top of the fourth inning, the 30-year-old veteran who recently made his MLB debut launched his fifth home run of the season, a two-run shot to give the Saints a 2-1 lead, but that was about it for the Saints offense.

Andrew Morris was on the mound for the Saints. He gave up a single run in the first inning. In the bottom of the fourth frame, MJ Melendez hit a two-run homer. #OldFriend Diego Castillo hit a solo homer in the fifth inning for the Storm Chasers. Morris gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks. He had two strikeouts. 

Randy Dobnak worked the final three innings. He gave up just one run on three hits and struck out four batters. Melendez hit his second homer of the night, a solo shot, in the eighth inning. 

The Twins had six hits and six walks on the day. They did get production from a couple of now-veterans who really need to produce. Jose Miranda went 3-for-5 with his sixth double. Edouard Julien was 0-for-1 with three walks. Along with his fifth homer, Fitzgerald also hit his 12th double. Catcher Patrick Winkel walked twice as well. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 5, Tulsa 6 (10 innings)
Box Score
Cossetti and Kala’i provided the power, but not enough as the Wind Surge fell short in extra innings. 

Down 1-0 in the second, Andrew Cossetti hit his fourth homer of the season to tie the game. 

An inning later, Kala’i Rosario hit his fifth homer of the year to make it 2-1. Ricardo Olivar followed with a double and scored on a two-out double by Cossetti.     

Trent Baker started for Wichita. He gave up a first-inning run, but then worked three scoreless innings. Unfortunately, in the top of the fifth inning, he gave up two runs and left the game with two runners on base and the game tied. John Stankiewicz came in and gave up a run-scoring single to put Tulsa up 4-3. 

But in the bottom of the sixth the Surge grabbed the lead back. Tanner Schobel and Gabriel Gonzalez started the inning with singles. With one out, Rosario singled to left to score Schobel. On the throw to the plate, both runners advanced into scoring position. Gonzalez scored on a ground out by Olivar.  

Baker ended up going 4 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on four hits and a walk. He also had seven strikeouts. Stankiewicz gave up two hits and a walk but got four outs and didn’t allow a run of his own. Jarret Whorff gave up a run in the top of the seventh inning on a two-out solo homer by Ezequiel Pagan. 

Whorff pitched a scoreless eighth inning. Cody Laweryson pitched a scoreless inning. Laweryson allowed the Manfred Man to score on a one-out single by Pagan. Unfortunately, the Wind Surge went one-two-three in the bottom of the 10th inning without advancing their Manfred Man. 

Rosario went 2-for-3 with two walks and a home run. Cossetti hit his fifth double and fourth homer and also walked. Gonzalez went 2-for-6 with his third double. Olivar added his seventh double of the season. Schobel had a single, a walk, and was hit by a pitch. The single pushed his hitting streak to 18 games, the highest in the league this season. The Wind Surge went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 3, Lake County 2
Box Score
Chase Chaney was terrific on Saturday. Kyle DeBarge came up with a huge hit, and the bullpen held on to a nice win for the Kernels. 

Chaney, a 25-year-old righty who signed as a minor-league free agent with the Twins in the offseason, made his sixth Kernels start. He has completed six innings in four of his six starts, and completed five in the other two. On Saturday, he went six innings. He gave up one run on six hits. The lone run he allowed came on a solo homer by outfielder Wuilfredo Antunez in the fourth inning. He walked none, hit one, and had one strikeout. 

The Kernels took the lead in the bottom of the third inning. With two outs, Payton Eeles walked. Kyle DeBarge followed with a two-run homer, his fifth homer of the season.   

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Poncho Ruiz hit a one-out double. Misael Urbina hit an infield single which allowed Ruiz time to advance to third base. Kaelen Culpepper came up and lined an RBI single to left field to give the Kernels a 3-1 lead. 

Lefty Samuel Perez pitched a perfect seventh inning. He came back out for the eighth inning and gave up a single, but that was followed by a double play. He issued a two-out walk, and at that point, Cole Percival was called out of the bullpen who gave up back-to-back singles, the latter drove in a run (charged to Perez) to cut the Kernels lead to 3-2, but he got a fly out to end the eighth. 

Percival came out to start the ninth inning with a 3-2 lead. He started with a strikeout, but then he hit a batter. That was followed by a single. With runners on first and second, manager Brian Meyer turned to lefty Gabriel Yanez. He got a fly out and a pop out to end the game with a win in front of the Veterans Memorial Stadium fans. 

DeBarge went 2-for-4 with a homer. He was the lone Kernel with more than one hit. Ruiz doubled for the second time since his promotion a couple of days ago. Brandon Winokur added his 12th double of the season.   

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 11, Tampa 1
Box Score
It was a Dason Day for the Mussels in Tampa. The young flamethrower was terrific, and the lineup reached double digits. 

Let’s start with Dason Hill’s performance. The lefty tossed three scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked two, and had five strikeouts. While we didn’t get pitch velocities for every pitch from Tampa, Hill’s fastball was consistently hitting 96 mph. 

Michael Ross, the Twins 18th-round pick in 2024 from Samford, came on to start the fourth inning. He was fantastic. Over five innings, he gave up one run on five hits (a solo home run). He had eight strikeouts without a walk. 52 of his 71 pitches were strikes (73%). 

Hunter Hoopes struck out two in a perfect ninth inning, completing a strong game on the mound for the Mussels. 

For the fifth time this season, the Mussels offense reached double digit in runs scored. After two scoreless innings, the Mussels got things going with a five-run third inning. The inning had a bit of an FCL feel to it. Blaze O’Saben started the inning by reaching on an error. After a passed ball, O’Saben scored on a single by Yohander Martinez. Next, Dameury Pena reached on an error, and Maddux Houghton walked to load the bases. The next two batters got out without getting the ball out of the infield. However, Miguel Briceno walked to score Martinez. That was followed by a bases-clearing double by Jefferson Valladares. 

The fourth inning began with an O’Saben single. He stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. With one out, Dameury Pena walked. He stole second, and O’Saben scored on a throwing error by the catcher. 6-0 Mussels. 

Jump ahead to the top of the seventh inning. Houghton walked and stole second and third. Luke Napleton walked and stole second. With one out Briceno drove both in with a single to center. That made the score 8-1. 

The top of the eighth inning started with a double by Ricardo Pena. O’Saben was hit by a pitch. With one out, and following a pitching change, Dameury Pena completed the team’s scoring with a three-run homer, his third of the season. 

The Mussels scored their 11 runs on just seven hits. No one had more than one hit. They also had five walks and were hit by two pitches. They were also helped by four Tampa errors. They forced the issue with six stolen bases. The team was 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left just four on base. 

Dameury Pena, Miguel Briceno, and Jefferson Valladares each had three RBI. 

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Twins 1, FCL Red Sox 3
Box Score
On Saturday morning, the FCL Twins traveled down Daniels Parkway to take on the Red Sox squad. Most likely they would have made a late-innings comeback, but the rains came and the game was called in the sixth inning. 

Joel Garcia made the start. He went 4 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on four hits. He walked one and had four strikeouts. Aiberson Ventura came on with two runners on base and a double scored both of them. He got the next two batters out, one on a strikeout. Andrew Huffman was about to start pitching in the sixth when the rains came. 

The Twins managed just three hits in this game. The team’s lone run came in the fourth inning. With one out, Daiber De Los Santos walked. He stole second. With two outs, there was a wild pitch which, coupled with a throwing error by the catcher, allowed De Los Santos to score. Luis Fragoza followed that by knocking his fourth double. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Ryan Fitzgerald (St. Paul): 2-for-4, 2B(12), HR(5), R, 2 RBI, K
Andrew Cossetti (Wichita): 2-for-4, BB, 2B(5), HR(4), R, 2 RBI, K
Kala’i Rosario (Wichita): 2-for-3, 2 BB, HR (5), R, 2 RBI, K.
Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-4, HR(5), R, 2 RBI

Pitcher of the Day 
Chase Chaney (Cedar Rapids): 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, K, 91 pitches, 57 strikes (62.6%)
Michael Ross (Fort Myers): 5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 8 K, 71 pitches, 52 strikes (73.2%) 

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

#6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, RBI (played SS)
#8 - Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 92 pitches, 55 strikes (59.8%)
#9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2B(12) (played CF)
#10 - Dasan Hill (Fort Myers) - 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 57 pitches, 34 strikes (59.6%)
#11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, HR(5), R, 2 RBI (played 2B)
#14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 2-for-6, 2B(3), R, K
#16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-2, BB, 2 K (played CF)
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB, HBP, R
#20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-5, 2B(7), R, RBI, 2 K

SUNDAY PITCHING PROBABLES
Minnesota @ Seattle (3:10 PM CT) - RHP Chris Paddack (2-5, 3.92 ERA)
St. Paul @ Omaha (5:05 PM CT) - RHP Travis Adams (3-1, 3.20 ERA)
Tulsa @ Wichita (1:05 PM CT) - LHP Connor Prielipp (0-2, 4.30 ERA)
Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CT) - RHP Alejandro Hidalgo (0-1, 6.47 ERA)
Fort Myers @ Tampa (11:00 AM CT) - RHP Adrian Bohorquez (0-3, 14.34 ERA)

Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Saturday’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!