Twins Minor League Report (5/4): Rain, A Beat Down And A Close Finish

Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Thursday.

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester @ Buffalo

Postponed – Rain

Thursday’s game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on June 26^th.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Pensacola @ Chattanooga

Postponed - Rain

Thursday’s game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Saturday, May 6^th. As Thursday was originally scheduled as Star Wars Night (May the 4^th), Star Wars night has been rescheduled for June 24^th.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Daytona 7 @ Fort Myers 0

Box Score

The Miracle were shut out for the second time this year, and struggled to hit Daytona starter Jesus Reyes, managing just 6 hits over 7.2 before Reyes yielded to the pen.

Miracle starter Keaton Steele cruised through his first three innings, facing just one over the minimum after giving up a first inning single, but ran into trouble in the top of the fourth. Steele was tagged for three runs in the top of the fourth on five hits. Steele gave up another pair of runs in the sixth before he was done for the night. Steele’s final line was 9 hits, 5 runs, one walk, two strike outs, and one home run. He gave way to Sam Clay who picked up a pair of strikeouts in the seventh before giving way to Williams Ramirez for the final two innings. Ramirez gave up a pair of runs in the ninth, but the game was well out of hand by then.

Leadoff hitter Zack Granite had three of the Miracle’s seven hits, a triple and a pair of singles. The other four hits came one apiece (all singles) from Shane Kennedy, Sean Miller, Rafael Valera and Nelson Molina. The Miracle did not earn any walks on the night, but struck out only three times.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Lake County @ Cedar Rapids

Box Score

Twins Daily’s own Seth Stohs was in attendance in Cedar Rapids for a tight game that saw the Kernels take an early lead, only to fall behind the Captains, then the Kernels took the lead back in the eighth only to give up a run in the top of the ninth. The Kernels wore really ugly Star Wars jerseys with some 8-ball looking robot on them.

Whatever.

Starter Tyler Wells went five innings, giving up a pair of runs and striking out seven (against just one walk). He left with the game tied at 2. Andrew Vasquez came in and pitched three strong innings of relief, and was in line for the win before being charged with a run in the top of the ninth. He put a man on with one out before being replaced by Tom Hackimer. Hackimer came in and gave up a game-tying double to the first batter he faced, but limited the damage to just that one run before ending the inning.

With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, the Kernels started the inning with Travis Blankenhorn being hit by a pitch and then Brandon Lopez singled on a bunt back to the pitcher to put runners at first and second with no outs. Ben Rortvedt was showing bunt, trying to trade an out to move runners over, but reliever Ryder Ryan would have none of it, and walked Rortvedt to load the bases with no outs. With a chance to win the game and be the hero, Aaron Whitefield was called out on strikes to bring up Christian Cavaness, who struck out as well, bringing up leadoff hitter Jermaine Palacios needing a base hit to win the ballgame but hit a sharp grounder to third to send the game to extras. What a Twins sequence of events!

Tom Hackimer put the leadoff runner on in the 10^th, but then used three strikeouts, including a breaking ball that was swing on and missed and then HIT the batter for the second out, to bring the Kernels up in the 10^th. The Kernels didn’t do a dang thing in the bottom of the 10^th, and on the game went.

Then the Kernels farted the game away in the 11^th. The leadoff hitter reached on a HBP that was eventually awarded after the umpire originally called a deadball as the baseball appeared to be initially ruled a foul tip off the KNOB of the bat. The runner would eventually come around the score to give Lake County the lead. The Kernels did not do a dang thing in the bottom of the inning and lost a game they should have won (twice!).

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Tyler Wells – Cedar Rapids Kernels

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Zack Granite – Fort Myers Miracle

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Pawtucket @ Rochester (6:05pm) – Adalberto Mejia (0-0, 0.00)

Pensacola @ Chattanooga (6:15pm) – Matt Randy LeBlanc (0-1, 36.00)

Ft. Myers @ St. Lucie (5:30pm) – Lachlan Wells (1-3, 3.68)

Fort Wayne @ Cedar Rapids (6:35pm) – Sean Poppen (0-0, 1.67)

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Thursday's games.

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