Twins Minor League Report (8/28): Louie Varland Dominates out of Saints Bullpen; Aaron Sabato Powers the Wind Surge

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 72-61
St. Paul Saints: 61-66
Wichita Wind Surge: 52-70
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 63-57
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-53
FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete)
DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) 

TRANSACTIONS
With Michael Tonkin officially re-joining the team, Caleb Boushley was optioned to the Saints. 
LHP Brent Headrick started a rehab assignment with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 3, Omaha 2 
Box Score
Jeff Brigham got a surprise start for St. Paul on Wednesday night. He went two innings and gave up one run on two hits. Then the Twins brought in the scheduled starter, Louie Varland, and he was fantastic. The St. Paul native tossed five shutout innings. He gave up just one hit. He walked two and struck out nine batters. 

Hobie Harris gave up a run on a hit and two walks in the eighth inning. Diego Castillo recorded his eighth save with two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.  

The Saints got on the board with two runs in the top of the first inning. Payton Eeles and Brooks Lee took walks to start the game. Eeles stole third before DaShawn Keirsey drove him in with a sacrifice fly. After the second out, Michael Helman

With a 2-1 lead in the third inning, Keirsey led off with a single. He stole second, his 32nd steal of the year. Yunior Severino singled him to third. With one out, Jair Camargo fly out to center, just deep enough for Keirsey to score. However, Severino was thrown out at second base to end the inning. That was all the run support the pitching staff got in this game. 

The Saints had just five hits, and Keirsey had two of them. Keirsey also had two steals to give him 33 on the year. They also walked six times. Eeles walked twice. Carson McCusker was the only Saints player with a hit and a walk. He hit his first Saints double. The team was just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 1, Springfield 2 
Box Score
With C.J. Culpepper understandably being brought back slowly from his forearm injury earlier in the season, his starts essentially become a bullpen game. Culpepper went the first 2 2/3 innings. He gave up two runs on five hits and two walks. He had one strikeout.

John Stankiewicz came in and got four outs. Cody Laweryson and Michael Paredes each provided two scoreless innings of relief. Kyle Bischoff then struck out two batters in a scoreless top of the ninth. 

Down 2-0 going to the bottom of the fourth inning, Aaron Sabato’s 10th home run put the Surge on the board. Unfortunately, that was all they were able to score and lost a tight 2-1 decision. 

Things did get interesting in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Dalton Shuffield and Kyler Fedko each hit singles to put runners at the corners, but Ben Ross lined out to the right fielder to end the threat, and end the game. 

The Wind Surge had just six hits. Sabato had two hits including the home run and his 13th double. Andrew Cossetti and Dalton Shuffield each had a single and a walk. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 7, Lake County 5 
Box Score
The Kernels grabbed the early lead. Then they had a five-run sixth inning that made it 7-0. It gave them just enough to hang on at the end.  

The Kernels scored first when the scored one in the top of the second inning. Rubel Cespedes led off with a double and scored on a Misael Urbina single. 

In the top of the third inning, Walker Jenkins led off with a triple. He scored on a Gabriel Gonzalez single to make it 2-0.  

That’s where the score was when former Twins draft pick Steve Hajjar came in for Lake County. The lefty walked Cespedes, Urbina, and Salas to load the bases. Kyle Hess singled in one run. Matthew Clayton came through with a grand slam to give the Kernels the 7-0 lead. 

Ty Langenberg was the recipient of the run support, but he was fantastic on his own. Langenberg tossed six scoreless innings. He gave up just two hits, walked three, and had three strikeouts. He improved to 5-2 with a 4.25 ERA since he joined the Kernels. 

Jacob Wosinski came on and gave up two runs on two hits and a walk over two innings. Through eight innings, the Kernels held a 7-2 lead. Juan Mendez came in. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on two hits and a walk without getting an out. Rafael Marcano came on and gave up one hit but got three outs and held on to a 7-5 lead. 

Walker Jenkins went 3-for-5 with his second triple. He also stole his fifth base. Gabriel Gonzalez was 2-for-3. Misael Urbina was 2-for-4. Obviously the big hit of the game was the Matthew Clayton grand slam. It marked his first Kernels home run. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 1, Clearwater 8
Box Score
This wasn’t a great game for the Mussels at Hammond Stadium. They had won on a walkoff from Brandon Winokur the night before. However, in this game, they were able to manage just three hits in the game. Winokur had two of them. Khadim Diaw had the other, his third double of the season. 

A key development in this game was the announcement shortly before first pitch that lefty Brent Headrick was going to start a rehab program. The 26-year-old had not pitched since he tossed five, two-hit innings for the Saints on April 6th. It’s been a long road, so starting rehab is a big step. He went 1 1/3 innings. He gave up two hits, hit a batter and issued a walk, but no runs. He threw 35 pitches. 21 were strikes. So, he wasn’t really sharp, but it was a nice milestone to be able to check off the list. 

Cleiber Maldonado came in and got the final two outs, leaving two inherited runners on base. 

Charlee Soto came in for the third inning. He’s been pitching well, but on this night, he just couldn’t find it. Soto went three full innings. He gave up three runs on three hits. He had five strikeouts, but uncharacteristically, he also issued five strikeouts. I don’t know about you, but at this point, I would be fine with shutting him down, rather than get him two more starts. Call his first professional season a success, end the season healthy, and have plenty to learn from this offseason. 

Jack Noble worked the next two innings. He gave up one run on two walks. He had three strikeouts. Ben Ethridge got five outs, but he gave up four runs (2 earned) on six hits and a walk. Maddux Houghton came in and issued a walk before getting the final out.  

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Louie Varland (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, 74 pitches, 48 strikes (64.9%).
Hitter of the Day – Aaron Sabato (Wichita) - 2-for-4, 2B(13), HR(10), R, RBI. 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday.

#1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 3-for-5, 3B(2), R, SB(5), K. 
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Rehab St. Paul: 0-for-3, BB, R.
#6 - David Festa (Minnesota) -  6 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 88 pitches, 58 strikes (65.9%)
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-3, HBP, RBI, K. CS.     
#8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 6 BB, 1 HB, 5 K, 71 pitches, 31 strikes (46.5%)
#9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, BB, K.  
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 2-for-4, K. 
#15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - Rehab with Fort Myers: 0-for-3, BB
#16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 0-for-4, K.
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-4, 2 K.
#19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - 2.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 61 pitches, 38 strikes (62.3%)    

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM CST) – RHP Randy Dobnak (10-6, 3.81 ERA)
Springfield @ Wichita (7:05 PM CST) – LHP Jaylen Nowlin (5-5, 4.96 ERA) 
Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (6:00 PM CST) – RHP John Klein (8-3, 4.94 ERA)
Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (6:05 PM CST) – RHP Anthony Narvaez (0-0, 18.00 ERA) 

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

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