Twins Minor League Report (7/5): Wichita Walks it off in Extras

TRANSACTIONS

No moves were made on Sunday

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 3, Buffalo 8
Box Score
Ty Langenberg: ⅔ IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
HR: Matt Wallner (15)
Multi-hit games: None

The Saints fell behind early and never recovered on Sunday.

Ty Langenberg’s fourth pitch left the field of play. He should have quit while he was ahead (or not as far behind as he would soon be). The initial strike devolved into an elongated, laborious frame with base runners galore, and three runs across home plate. He threw 39 pitches to net two outs. Trent Baker mercifully ended Langenberg’s day. He netted the final out of the inning with one pitch. Baseball sometimes has a sense of humor.

A Ben Ross sacrifice fly broke the shutout against St. Paul in the fifth. A Walker Jenkins single claimed a second run. A Matt Wallner clobber shot in the ninth put a beautiful shade of lipstick on this swine.

Might Wallner be fixed? He slashed .315/.390/.730 in June and is off to a .333/.500/.933 mark in July. Like Royce Lewis before him, beating the brains out of AAA pitching teaches us nothing about him as a ballplayer. At some point, the Twins will need to bring him back to Minneapolis to see if he can return to his status as Paul Bunyan in the left-handed batter’s box. He even stole a base on Sunday.

Rehabbing big leaguer Ryan Jeffers went 1-4 as the DH.

Bison starter Jake Bloss is ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the Blue Jays system by MLB.com. He allowed one run across 4 ⅓ innings.

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 9, Tulsa 8 (10 Innings)
Box Score
Cory Lewis: 4 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
HR: Andrew Cossetti (14), Billy Amick (20)
Multi-hit games: Khadim Diaw (2-for-3, 2 R, RBI), Garrett Spain (2-for-4, 3B, 2 R, BB), Kyle DeBarge (3-for-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI, BB)

The Wind Surge walked off their opponents on Sunday.

Woe onto whomever attempts to predict a minor league baseball game.

Cory Lewis entered the game on the heels of a ghastly eight run performance against these same Drillers earlier in the week… and, so, he naturally had one his better starts of the season. Though the WHIP wasn’t pretty, the baserunners were the price he paid for an unruly effectiveness, as Tulsa hitters had even less of a clue where his knuckleball was going than he did. The result was four shutout innings and a season-high matching seven strikeouts.

Wichita kicked off the scoring in the third with yet another Andrew Cossetti blast, his fifth in his last five games. Two more runs touched home in the inning when Marek Houston stole his way around the diamond and Khadim Diaw knocked him in, and when the RBI-hitting Diaw trotted home off a Kyle DeBarge double.

Tulsa racked up five runs, giving them a short lead until Billy Amick blasted a skyrocket that scraped one of Jupiter’s moons before returning to Earth.

Matching scores pushed the game to extras, where the Drillers jumped on reliever Sam Ryan to push forth not just the Manfred runner, but an all-important second run to give them an 8-6 advantage. 

A death knell? Evidently not. The Wind Surge were in a rebellious mood. Rather than letting Tulsa end the day happy, they got to work building up another rally. A DeBarge single advanced the man on second to third, and a Jaime Ferrer hit brought him home. Then, Jose Salas swung an 0-2 count to his team’s favor by wearing an errant pitch off his foot. With the bases loaded—no room for anything but action of some sort—Quinn McDaniel shot a single beyond the first baseman, easily plating one, then two runs as a dashing Ferrer snuck in before the relay could get him. 

The Drillers are spearheaded by MLB’s fourth-ranked prospect, outfielder Josue De Paula. He singled twice in six trips to the plate. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 4, Quad Cities 8
Box Score
Michael Ross: 4 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
HR: Enrique Jimenez (3)
Multi-hit games: Enrique Jimenez (2-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB), Luis Hernandez (2-for-2, 3B, R)

The Kernels squandered an initial lead on Sunday.

The Mississippi River is the second longest river in the North American continent, flowing around 2,350 miles from its source at Lake Itasca in Minnesota through the continental US, discharging nearly 600,000 cubic feet of water. At least 260 species of fish—around a quarter of all fish species found in North America—call the river their home. And, after Sunday, it also claims an Enrique Jimenez home run ball. 

Unfortunately, neither the river or its tributaries could stop Quad Cities from striking back with a vigorous vengeance. They plated two in the first, third, fourth, and eighth innings to give them a clean rally for this author to efficiently describe with just one sentence. 

Cedar Rapids jabbed back with a run in each the fourth and the sixth; the former off a Dameury Pena single, the latter a Caden Kendle knock. 

Quad Cities—an affiliate of the Royals—sent the franchise’s seventh-ranked prospect to the ballpark on Sunday, catcher Ramon Ramirez. He doubled twice in five trips to the plate.

Mussel Matters
Fort Myers 2, Clearwater 6
Box Score
Justin Mitrovich: 4 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
HR: Irvin Nunez (3)
Multi-hit games: Quentin Young (2-for-4)

The Mighty Mussels were thwarted by the only team ahead of them in the FSL standings.

The first set the tone for the game. With hopes and sparkling dreams in their eyes, Fort Myers suffered a rough three-spot defensively, as a single, a walk, a hit by pitch, three stolen bases, and a bases-clearing double gave the Threshers a lead they would not relinquish. They didn't even steal another base all day. It was as if they were satisfied with simply revealing once what they were fully capable of. 

After three empty frames, Fort Myers offered a mild rebuttal of Clearwater’s thesis with a solo shot by Irvin Nunez, and a run-scoring groundout the next inning by Merphy Hernandez. 

A rough day for Fort Myers pitchers, Kolten Smith nonetheless put forward a respectable performance, hurling two shutout innings with a pair of strikeouts.

Lefty James Tallon ranks as the 19th-best prospect in the Phillies system, and he pitched an inning out of the bullpen on Sunday. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Cory Lewis
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Enrique Jimenez

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:

#1 – Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 1-4, RBI, K
#4 – Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 1-5, R, 2 K
#5 – Marek Houston (Wichita) - 1-4, R, BB
#10 – Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-4
#13 – Khadim Diaw (Wichita) - 2-3, 2 R, RBI
#14 – Quentin Young (Fort Myers) - 2-4, 2 K
#18 – Yasser Mercedes (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, BB, K
#19 – Billy Amick (Wichita) - 1-5, HR, R, 2 RBI
#20 – Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 3-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI, BB

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
FCL Orioles @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM) - TBD
DSL Twins @ DSL White Sox (10:00 AM) - TBD

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!