Twins Minor League Report (7/10): Keaschall and Ross Put the Win in Wind Surge; Julien's Near Cycle

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 53-40
St. Paul Saints: 44-43
Wichita Wind Surge: 36-47
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 48-32
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 42-39
FCL Twins: 23-25
DSL Twins: 15-10

TRANSACTIONS
The Twins played a doubleheader. David Festa was called up as the 27th man. 

The Twins also signed 33-year-old veteran outfielder Wynton Bernard. Earlier this season, he played 41 games for the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the White Sox. He hit .306/.328/.446 (.774) with six doubles, a triple, and three home runs. He also had 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts. 

Bernard was originally the 35th round pick by the San Diego Padres in the 2012 draft out of Niagara University in New York. He has also spent time with the Tigers, Giants, Cubs, Rockies, Blue Jays and White Sox organizations. He has played in 1,051 minor-league games, and he has played in 12 big-league games. In 2022, he got those games with the Rockies and went 12-for-42 (.286) with a double. He had three stolen bases. 

In the past couple of weeks, the Twins have been promoting guys from A-ball to the Saints, and they’ve done just fine, but bringing in a veteran should help the team. 

OF/IF Brandon Winokur was activated by the Mighty Mussels. .  

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 5, Louisville 6
Box Score
David Festa was scheduled to start this one for the Saints, but he was summoned to Chicago to be the 27th man in Wednesday’s doubleheader. So the Saints went with a bullpen game which went really well, at least through six innings. And frankly, the Saints offense was really good through six innings as well. From there, things got quite interesting. Were the Saints able to hang on?

The bullpen arms started the game with six shutout innings. Scott Blewett got five outs. Nick Wittgren recorded seven outs. Zack Weiss got six outs, four of them on strikeouts. 

The Saints grabbed the early lead when Yunior Severino knocked his 16th home run of the season to make it 1-0. 

The Saints made it 2-0 in the third inning when DaShawn Keirsey grounded out to score Maddux Houghton, who had led off with a single. 

In the sixth inning, Payton Eeles hit a solo, two-out home run to make it 3-0. 

An Edouard Julien solo homer in the 7th inning gave the Saints a 4-0 lead. 

Josh Winder came in for the bottom of the seventh and it went a bit like his recent Twins outing. Lots of soft contact, infield singles and a sacrifice fly. By inning’s end, the Saints were hanging on to a 4-3 lead. 

In the top of the eighth inning, however, Chris Williams knocked his 10th home of the season. 

Matt Bowman came in for the bottom of the eighth inning and gave up one run. The Saints went scoreless in the top of the ninth. Diego Castillo came in to protect a one-run lead… After getting the first two batters out, Castillo issued a walk. On a 1-0 pitch Michael Trautwein crushed a homer to walkoff the Saints.  

Julien went 3-for-4 with a walk, his second double and his fifth home run. Anthony Prato went 2-for-3 with a walk and his 15th double. The Saints certainly had more opportunities to score, but they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.  

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 4, Springfield 3
Box Score
This was a bit of a game of back-and-forth, but it started out with three innings of shutout baseball. Kyle Jones was back on the mound for the Wind Surge as he continues to ease his way back after missing the first two months. He worked four innings and gave up one run on two hits. He had three strikeouts with no walks. 

Wichita got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning. Tanner Schobel led off with a walk and advanced to second on a Ben Ross single to center. With one out, Jorel Ortega drove in a run with a single between third and shortstop that ended up in left field. Ross scored on a Luke Keaschall single. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Springfield responded with a solo homer to cut the Surge lead in half. Jaylen Nowlin came in for the fifth inning. After a scoreless inning, he gave up single runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. 

In the top of the seventh inning, Keaschall walked and moved up a base on a Jake Rucker single. Both scored on a double by Jeferson Morales. Through seven innings, the Surge were clinging to a 4-3 lead. 

With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, Luke Keaschall singled to drive in both Ross and Ortega and give the Surge a 6-3 lead. 

Nowlin worked the eighth inning. He recorded two outs quickly before back-to-back singles made things a little scary. However, he got another groundball to keep the three-run lead. 

The Surge added an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Carson McCusker scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-3. 

Nowlin got the win with five strong innings to close the door. He gave up two runs on seven hits. He had two walks and two strikeouts.  

Ross went 3-for-5 and stole his 11th bag. Keaschall was 2-for-4 with a walk. Morales went 2-for-5 with his 17th double. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 1, Beloit 3
Box Score
The Kernels fell behind and couldn’t muster enough offense to catch up. 

Michael Paredes started and worked the first four innings. He gave up one run on five hits. He had three strikeouts but not walks. A.J. Labas came in and gave up two runs in the fifth inning and worked a scoreless sixth frame. Gabriel Yanez struck out three batters over the final two innings. 

The Kernels simply were unable to generate any offense. In fact, Beloit starter Emmett Olson started the game with six no-hit innings. The Kernels  only had two hits in the game. Nate Baez knocked his fifth double. In the seventh inning, Kevin Maitan hit his fifth homer since joining the team. Jay Harry had two of the three walks. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 4, Daytona Beach 5 
Box Score
The Mussels fell behind early. They attempted a comeback but it fell just short. 

Down 3-0 going to the bottom of the second inning, Nick Lucky hit a one-out triple. A few batters later, he scored on a wild pitch. 

Ricky Castro made the start for Fort Myers. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on four hits over three innings. He walked two and had two strikeouts. Paulshawn Pasqualotto came on and worked the next four innings. He gave up two runs on three hits. He had two walks and five strikeouts. Xander Hamilton struck out three batters over two scoreless, one-hit innings. 

Down 5-1 going to the bottom of the seventh inning, Byron Chourio walked with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. Poncho Ruiz reached on an error that left runners on second and third. Daniel Pena lined a single to left that drove in both Chourio and Ruiz.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Matthew Clayton was hit by a pitch. He advanced to third base on a Ryan McCarthy double. Angel Del Rosario reached on an error which allowed Clayton to score. 

Daniel Pena went 2-for-4 with a walk. Nick Lucky was 2-for-5 with his second double since joining the team. McCarthy’s double was his sixth, and Del Rosario hit his third double. The team had six hits and six walks, but went just 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. They left 11 runners on base. 

DOMINICAN DAILIES
DSL Twins 4, DSL Rangers Red 0 (Suspended in the 4th)
Box Score
The Twins were supposed to play two games on Wednesday afternoon in the Dominican. Unfortunately, after just three complete innings, the rains came and Game 1 was suspended. 

Eudy Garcia started and tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out. 

The Twins scored four runs in the top of the second inning. Luis Fragoza led off with a single. Ricardo Paez followed with another single. A passed ball pushed runners to second and third. Fragoza scored on a Victor Leal groundout. Alver Medina reached on an error, and Guillermo Sosa was hit by a pitch to lead the bases. Daiber De Los Santos singled to center to drive in two runners and make it 3-0 Twins. A Ramiro Dominguez double drove in Sosa with the fourth run.

This game is scheduled to be completed on July 19th. The second game is set to be made up in mid-August.                                                             

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Zack Weiss (Saints) - 2.0 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; 32 pitches, 23 strikes (71.9%)  

 Hitter of the Day – Edouard Julien (Saints) - 3-for-4, BB, 2B(2), HR(5), R, RBI. 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday.
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Game 1: 0-for-4, K, Game 2: 1-for-5, HR(2), R, RBI.
#5 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-4
#9 – Luke Keaschall (Wichita) –  2-for-4, BB, R, 2 RBI
#13 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-4, BB, R, 2K
#18 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 1-for-5, HR(16), R, RBI.
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-3, BB, K 

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Louisville (5:35 PM CST) – RHP Louie Varland (3-7, 6.57 ERA)
Wichita @ Springfield (7:05 PM CST) – RHP Travis Adams (4-6, 4.80 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (6:35 PM CST) – RHP Ty Langenberg (3-0, 4.79 ERA)
Daytona @ Ft. Myers (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Ross Dunn (1-2, 5.92 ERA)
FCL Twins @ FCL Rays (11:00 AM CT) - TBD
DSL Twins @ DSL Phillies (10:00 AM CST) - TBD 

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

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!