Twins Minor League Report (8/13): Isola Powers Surge; Kernels Comeback Again

I will be the first to tell you that age-related-to-level of competition ultimately isn't terribly important as it relates to a player potentially helping a big-league team. We all know of many examples of players who didn't debut in the big leagues at 26, 28, or even 33 years old. And while in many cases that may hurt their chances of having enough longevity to get to the Hall of Fame, that player can still be an impact player for several years. 

On the other hand, age-to-level of competition tends to be a huge factor in prospect rankings, and understandably so. It is the outliers that move more quickly and get challenged at higher levels. If you were to just look at Marco Raya's season stats and compare him to other starting pitchers at Cedar Rapids or Wichita, they don't compare well. However, the fact that Raya turned 21 a week ago and is five years younger than the average player in the league matter. 

First, I will share the youngest Twins players, and then under each affiliate's section, I'll post the youngest players as well.  For the two rookie-level leagues, I split them into pitchers and hitters. 

Here are the records of the Twins and their six affiliates through games on Sunday. 

Minnesota Twins: 62-58
St. Paul Saints: 66-47 
Wichita Wind Surge: 47-60
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 66-42
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 52-56
FCL Twins: 21-26
DSL Twins: 12-33 

Let’s get to the report. As always, please feel free to discuss and ask questions. 

TRANSACTIONS
No transactions on Sunday. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 6, Louisville 8 (6 innings-rain)
Box Score
The rains came and this game shut down early. But enough happened in 2/3 of a game, that after a short rain delay, they called it a full game. The Saints started with a six-run first inning. Unfortunately, the Bats scored two in the top of the second and then had a six-run inning of their own. Then things went quiet until the rains came. 

Carlos Luna made his first Saints start. The first inning went well. He got a fly out and then struck out the next two batters. 

With one out in the bottom of the first, Royce Lewis singled, scored second, and then scored on a single by Brooks Lee. After a ground out for the inning’s second out, Anthony Prato singled in Lee. After stealing second base, Jair Camargo walked. Gilberto Celestino drove in Prato with a single. Austin Martin stayed hot and hit a three-run homer. After DaShawn Keirsey singled, the Bats brought in former Twins prospect Casey Legumina who got a strikeout to end the inning. The Twins 10th-round pick in 2019 struck out three more batters in the second inning.

Unfortunately, Luna’s final line didn’t look great. In 2 2/3 innings, he gave up eight runs on seven hits and a walk. Two, three-run homers accounted for all six runs in the third inning. 

Ronny Henriquez came on and got the final out of the third inning and then worked two more innings. He gave up a total of just one hit and one walk, and he struck out four batters. Andrew Bechtold had a 1-2-3 sixth inning. 

Royce Lewis went 2-for-3, the only Saints player with more than one hit. He appears healthy and should be in a Twins uniform on Tuesday when the Tigers come to town.  

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 9, NW Arkansas 8 (10 innings)
Box Score
David Festa was on the mound to start this game. The hard-throwing righty went the first five innings. He gave up just one run on three hits. He walked three and struck out four batters. 

Alex Scherff came on to start the sixth inning. He gave up two runs on one hit and one walk and recorded just one out. Miguel Rodriguez came on and was charged with three unearned runs n two hits and two walks before getting third final out of the inning. 

Down 6-3, the Surge scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning to reclaim the lead. Alex Isola came to the plate with the bases loaded and crushed a grand slam. It was his second homer of the game and 14th of the season. Two batters later, Patrick Winkel doubled to score Jake Rucker and make it 8-3. 

Francis Peguero worked a scoreless seventh inning but gave up one run in the eighth frame to make it 8-7. Isaac Mattson came in for the ninth and gave up a run to tie the game 8-8 and send the game to an extra inning. 

In the 10th inning, Winkel added another double which scored Isola with the go-ahead run. Mattson got the 10th inning and got three outs before even the Manfred Man was able to score which gave the Wind Surge a one-run lead.  

Alex Isola led the way for the offense. He went 3-for-5 with two homers and six RBI. Pat Winkel was 2-for-5 and hit his 13th and 14th doubles. Seth Gray was also 2-for-4. Jake Rucker hit his third triple. In addition, Yoyner Fajardo had a single and a walk. He also stole his 40th base of the season. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 4, Quad Cities 2 
Box Score
Jorel Ortega’s sixth Kernels homer gave the team a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. They gave up two runs in the bottom of the second inning, but that was it. The Kernels staff pitched terrific, and the offense came through with big moments in the late innings to lead Davenport with the win. 

So let’s start with the pitching. C.J. Culpepper gave up two runs on three hits over five innings. He walked two and had seven strikeouts. Alejandro Hidalgo came on and worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit, walked two and struck out four batters .Jordan Carr gave up two hits, but he got the final four outs, two on strikeouts. 

Quad Cities pitching was also very good and the River Bandits held a 2-1 lead heading into the eighth inning. However, with one out in the top of the eighth inning, Carson McCusker took a 2-0 pitch and deposited over the left field wall to tie the game at 2-2. It was his third homer since joining the Kernels. 

With two outs in the top of the ninth and the score still tied, Noah Cardenas doubled to score Ortega and give the Kernels the lead. Andrew Cossetti singled to score Cardenas with an insurance run. 

The Kernels only had four hits in the game, but all four of them drove in a run. Jorel Ortega was the lone player to reach base twice, he had a walk to go with his homer. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 14, Bradenton 7
Box Score
No surprise that a game like this took over three-and-a-half hours. There were a lot of runs (21), a lot of hits (19), a lot of walks (21) and 13 pitchers used. Fortunately, the Mighty Mussels doubled-up the Marauders on the scoreboard. 

Let’s get the pitching part out of the way first, as it really wasn’t too pretty. John Klein made the start. He gave up two runs on four hits (one homer) and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts. Gabriel Yanez gave up a run on one hit (a homer) and three walks in 1 1/3 innings. He added two strikeouts. Johnathan Lavallee gave up one run on three walks (no hits) and got two outs. Jackson Hicks gave up one run on three walks (no hits) and got two outs. Zach Veen came on and faced two batters. He got both of them out, one on a strikeout. Develson Aria came in to start the ninth and gave up two runs on one hit and, you guessed it, three walks in 2/3 of an inning. Sam Perez gave up a hit before recording a strikeout to end the game. If you weren’t keeping count through that paragraph, that’ seven runs on seven hits and FIFTEEN walks. Yikes. 

Fortunately, the Fort Myers bats really muscled up and had some big innings. They led the game 6-0 after two innings and 8-0 after four frames. They added a field goal in both the seventh and eighth innings. 

The big hit of the four-run second inning was a three-run homer by infielder Yohander Martinez. It was his second long ball of the season. In the seventh inning, he drove in another run with his third double of the year. 

In the ninth, Rubel Cespedes drilled his 10th home run, a two-run shot. Cespedes went 3-for-5 with four RBI. Yohander Martinez went 2-for-2 with a walk. He was hit by a pitch and hit a double and homer. Danny De Andrade went 2-for-3 with two walks in the game. 

The Mussels also stole seven bases in the game. Luke Keaschall had three steals. Maddux Houghton stole two bags.

COMPLEX THOUGHTS from FLORIDA

COMPLEX THOUGHTS from BOCA CHICA

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Co-Hitter of the Day – Alex Isola (Wichita) - 3-for-5, 2-HR(14), 3 R, 6 RBI. 
Pitcher of the Day – David Festa (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, R, 3 BB, 4 K. 66 pitches, 41 strikes (62.1%) 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the new Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. The rankings will again be updated soon. You can help us by providing your rankings in this fun-to-use tool.

#1 - Brooks Lee (St. Paul) - 1-for-2, BB, R, RBI, K, SB(1)
#5 - Matt Wallner (Minnesota) - 0-for-4
#7 - David Festa (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 66 pitches, 41 strikes (62.1%)
#8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, HR(2), 3 RBI, R, 
#10 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-for-3, BB, HBP, 2 R, K
#12 - Luke Keaschall (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-2, BB, HBP, R, RBI, 3 SB(6)
#16 - Kala’i Rosario (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 3 K
#17 - Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 0-for-2, BB
#18 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, K. (played 2B)

MONDAY’S SCHEDULE AND PITCHING PROBABLES
FCL Braves @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CST) - TBD 
DSL Phillies White @ DSL Twins (DH at 9:00 AM CST) - TBD

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Sunday’s games or any other Twins minor league topics!

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!