Twins Minor League Report (6/29): Strong Starting Pitching and Burdi's Debut

The Minnesota Twins were able to end their 10-game road losing streak against the Texas Rangers on Sunday afternoon, behind a solid bounce-back effort from starter Kyle Gibson and clutch hitting from Kendrys Morales and unexpected spark plug Jorge Polanco. Gibson went eight efficient innings, allowing just two runs on ninety-five pitches (69 for strikes). Morales provided the winning RBI with a ninth inning double down the line to left to score Sam Fuld. Glen Perkins closed out the ninth by striking out the side to pick up his 20^th save of the year.

Down in the minors, the Twins affiliates received strong starting performances from all their pitchers (including that Berrios guy), but were only 1-3 on the day.

Second-round draft pick Nick Burdi also made his professional debut for the Cedar Rapids Kernels with Seth Stohs in attendance.

RED WINGS REPORT

Norfolk 1, Rochester 8

Box score

The story of the game for the Red Wings was starter Logan Darnell. He pitched his first AAA complete game, scattering nine hits and one walk, with three strikeouts. He helped himself by inducing four double plays, which is a season high for the Red Wings defense. Darnell is now 3-1 with 2.29 ERA in 39.1 IP in front of the home crowd at Frontier Field. The lone run was the result of a home run off the bat of Michael Almanzar in the fifth inning.

The offense put five runs on the board in the third inning to provide all the offensive support Darnell would need. James Beresford led off the inning with a single, and scored when Danny Ortiz hit his fourth home run of the season. Four consecutive hitters reached base after this, with Doug Bernier (single), Deibinson Romero (walk), Chris Colabello (double, RBI), and Chris Herrmann (double, 2 RBI) providing the three other runs. Rochester added a run in the seventh and two in the eighth to reach their final tally.

James Beresford (3-4, 2 R’s) and Eric Farris (2-5, RBI) were the only batters to collect multiple hits, but every player in the lineup except Nate Hanson reached base.

ROCK CATS REVIEW

New Britain 2, New Hampshire 3

Box Score

Starter Pat Dean was able to give the Rock Cats a quality start, but there was not enough offense to secure him a victory, as the lineup collected only five hits and three walks on the night and batted 1-7 with runners in scoring position.

Tony Thomas and Mike Kvasnicka each hit a double, while Aaron Hicks was 1-2 with two walks and a run scored. Kennys Vargas and Stephen Wickens had the other two hits.

Dean pitched 6.1 innings, but was chased in the seventh inning after giving up five consecutive singles to start the frame. If not for an outfield assist at home on the last of those, Dean would have surrendered at least one more run. He was relieved by Cole Johnson who retired the final two batters of the inning and finished the game with 1.2 innings, one hit allowed and two K’s.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Palm Beach 5, Fort Myers 2

Box Score

The story was much the same for the Miracle offense in Fort Myers, as they were only able to push two runs across the plate in support of staff ace Jose Berrios, who took only his third loss of the season. As a team, they were 2-11 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.

Berrios continued his dominance in this one, again pitching at least six innings, allowing two or fewer earned runs and striking out seven or more for his ninth straight start. In this one, he went seven innings, allowing just five hits and one walk, while striking out seven. He did surrender just his fourth home run of the year in the first inning, but also retired the final eight batters of his outing, finishing his game with a K.

For the offense, Lance Ray was 2-5 with an RBI (in thirteen games this season so far, he is sporting a .979 OPS with 8 doubles and 1 HR), Dalton hicks clubbed a double and Tyler Grimes was 1-1 with a double and three walks. Niko Goodrum was 1-5 with a run scored and stole his 16^th base of the year. Nate Roberts was 0-3, but walked twice, continuing to display his keen on-base abilities after a long period of injury recovery.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Clinton 7, Cedar Rapids 4

Box score

Twins Daily’s Seth Stohs was again in attendance at the Kernels game this afternoon, and saw a great game right until the end. He was able to chat with many of the players and coaches after the game, providing the insight here.

On the mound for the Kernels was Ethan Mildren, and he put together arguably his best start of the season. He blanked the LumberKings for seven innings, allowing just four hits, one walk and he racked up six K’s. Asked to describe his outing, Mildren said “I was getting ahead with my fastball well and establishing in and out, and getting good movement on my two-seamer in on righties.” Coach Jake Mauer added “He was outstanding. He was phenomenal.” Indeed!

Cedar Rapids struck for two runs in the first inning after Zack Granite led off the inning with a walk and was moved to third on an Engelb Vielma double. The bases were loaded after Chad Christensen was hit with a pitch, and a second HBP to Jason Kanzler scored the first run of the game. An Alex Swim groundout scored Vielma for run number two.

The scored stayed the same until the eighth inning, when the Kernels added two insurance runs on a Bryan Haar home run after Christensen hit his fourth triple of the year in front of him. Haar’s blast was his third in two days.

What came next was the professional debut of the Twins 2014 second round pick, hard-throwing closer Nick Burdi out of Louisville, who had been in the College World Series.

It didn’t go well, as he himself would admit. Burdi faced just four hitters in the top of the ninth, and walked all of them, with the first of his four earned runs given up scoring on a wild pitch.

Burdi explained, “[i was] a little rusty but I still walked four guys. That’s not an excuse but I’ve got to come back next time and be sharper.” He added: “It happens. It’s baseball. Have to move on” and “I’ve got to be better.”

Jake Mauer also talked about his new pitcher, explaining “We don’t know a lot about him. He was the closer at Louisville. He was the closer at a big time program. He’ll get another chance. No doubt about it.”

Burdi was replaced by Jared Wilson, who gave up a run-scoring single to the first batter he faced, then walked in another run to make the score 4-3. The final blow came when Christian Carmichael hit a grand slam to plate the final four for the LumberKings. Wilson's line for one inning included four hits, one walk, three earned runs and was charged with the blown save and loss.

E-TWINS E-NOTES

Bristol 0, Elizabethton 0 (suspended in the bottom of the first inning)

Box Score

The E-Twins didn’t get to play much baseball on Sunday, as rain stopped play with only one out in the bottom of the first inning. On the mound for Elizabethton was Derrick Penilla, who gave up a double to start the game, but escaped the first with no damage and picked up a strikeout.

The game will be finished before the regularly scheduled tilt tomorrow.

GCL TWINS TAKES

Just like every Sunday during the Gulf Coast League season, there were no games scheduled. The GCL Twins return to action tomorrow at 11:00 AM CST against the GCL Rays at home in Fort Myers.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Pitcher – TRIPLE PLAY!!! Logan Darnell, Rochester Red Wings (9IP, CG, 9 H’s, BB, 1 ER, 3 K’s); Jose Berrios, Fort Myers Miracle (7 IP, 5 H’s, BB, 2 ER’s, 7 K’s); Ethan Mildren, Cedar Rapids Kernels (7 IP, 4 H’s, BB, 0 R’s, 6 K’s)

Hitter – Danny Ortiz, Rochester Red Wings (1-3, BB, 2 R’s, HR, 2 RBI)

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Norfolk @ Rochester – TBD 6:05PM CST

Binghamton @ New Britain – TBD 6:05 CST

Palm Beach @ Fort Myers – D.J. Baxendale (1-1, 5.23 ERA) 6:05PM CST

Clinton @ Cedar Rapids – Kohl Stewart (1-4, 2.53 ERA) 12:05PM CST

Bristol @ Elizabethton (regularly scheduled game) – Michael Cederoth 6:00PM CST

GCL Twins @ GCL Red Sox – TBD 11:00AM CST

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