Twins Minor League Report (8/30): Marco Raya and Christian MacLeod Combine to Lead Surge to Win

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 73-61
St. Paul Saints: 62-67
Wichita Wind Surge: 53-71
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 64-58
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-53
FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete)
DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) 

TRANSACTIONS
After missing more than two months with a fractured elbow and a couple of rehab games in Fort Myers, Kala’i Rosario is with the Wichita Wind Surge. 

OF Tyler Dearden has been assigned to Cedar Rapids. 

RHP Travis Adams, who has been fantastic for the past couple of months in Wichita, has been promoted to the Saints.   

SAINTS SENTINEL
Game 1: St. Paul 5, Omaha 6 
Box Score
Walks will haunt! I mean, yeah, they’re annoying, but they don’t always haunt. But sometimes they do, and in Game 1 on Friday night in Omaha, the Saints were haunted by walks. 

Randy Dobnak made the start. He completed four innings and gave up four runs on four hits. He had six strikeouts, but he also issued five free passes. Giovanny Gallegos came in to start the fifth inning and faced six batters. He walked four of them. Ryan Jensen came in and got the third out of the fifth inning without further damage. Diego Castillo pitched a perfect sixth inning. But when you walk nine batters in less than five innings, you don’t really give yourself a chance. 

That said, the Saints bats sure tried to stay in it. They just fell short. Down 2-0, the Saints scored two runs in the top of the third. Anthony Prato singled, and Michael Helman doubled him to third to start the inning. Brooks Lee grounded out which scored Prato. DaShawn Keirsey followed with an RBI double to tie the score at 2-2. 

Omaha responded with two in the bottom of the third. In the top of the fourth, Jeferson Morales doubled and advanced to third on a passed ball. He scored on a Chris Williams groundout. 

With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Yunior Severino doubled. After a pitching change, he advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Jair Camargo single to tie it 4-4. 

But the Gallegos four-walk fifth inning allowed two more runs to score for Omaha. So, down by two runs going to the seventh inning, the Saints got a two-out single from Severino, and then another from Camargo. Payton Eeles singled to drive in Severino with the team’s fifth run, but that was it. The Saints fell one run short. 

Severino went 3-for-4 with his 16th double. Camargo went 2-for-4. Prato went 2-for-2 with a walk. Halman hit his 15th double. Keirsey’s double was his 19th of the season. Morales hit his third double since joining the Saints last Saturday. Lee, who is on a rehab assignment, went 0-4 with one strikeout and an RBI. 

Game 2: St. Paul 8, Omaha 3
Box Score
In Game 2, the Saints sent Andrew Morris to the mound. He pitched well, and the offense gave him plenty of early run support. 

Let’s start with Morris. The 22-year-old tossed five shutout innings. He gave up four hits, walked two and had four strikeouts to earn his first Triple-A win. 

In the top of the second, the Saints got on the scoreboard with four runs. Severino led off with a walk. With one out, Rylan Bannon walked. Morales singled to right but Severino was thrown out at home. So no runs scored and two outs. Patrick Winkel followed with a single to score Bannon. Prato walked to lead the bases. Payton Eeles came up with the big hit of the game. His bases-clearing triple gave the Saints a 4-0 lead. 

The top of the third inning began with a Keirsey single. Severino walked, and a double steal put runners on second and third. Ultimately, did it matter? Well, Carson McCusker followed with a three-run homer to make it 7-0 Saints. Then, with one out, Morales singled and stole second. He advanced to third on a ground out and then scored on a single by Prato. 

Josh Winder came in for the sixth inning and gave up two runs on four hits. He had one strikeout. Caleb Baragar gave up an unearned run on one hit in the sixth inning. He had two strikeouts.  

McCusker went 2-for-4 with his second Saints homer. Morales was 2-for-3 and stole his first base for St. Paul. Eeles had a walk to go with his three-run three-bagger. And it was his third Saints triple. Yunior Severino walked twice. Keirsey’s stolen base was his 34th. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 6, Springfield 1
Box Score 
Wichita had an offensive burst in the three middle innings, and they received a great start and long relief appearance to really earn a nice win. 

Marco Raya started and gave up one run in the first five innings. He gave up three hits, walked three and had five strikeouts. He threw 74 pitches. 

Christian MacLeod earned a four-inning save. He gave up no runs and no hits. He walked two and had six strikeouts. Following the game, MacLeod told Twins Daily, “All four pitches were working well tonight. I thought I did a good job of mixing all four of them and attacking the zone. I would just say mixing all of my pitches and not being predictable has led to success over the past few months.”

The Surge got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Tanner Schobel singled, and Alex Isola walked. They each moved up a base on a balk. Aaron Sabato singled to drive in Schobel and tie the game at 1-1. 

With one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Jorel Ortega singled. After a second out, Kala’i Rosario singled. Next, Jake Rucker doubled to drive in both runners and give the Surge a 3-1 lead. 

The bottom of the sixth inning began with two strikeouts. Kyler Fedko walked and moved to second on a wild pitch. Dalton Shuffield walked. Fedko then scored on a double off the bat of Ortega. Noah Cardenas followed with a two-run double that made it 6-1 Surge. 

In his first game since injuring his elbow in early June, Rosario was back in the Wichita lineup. Maybe attempting to get him as many ABs as possible, he was in the leadoff position. He went 2-for-4 with his 16th double. Ortega went 2-for-3 with his 13th double. Rucker drove in two runs with his 21st double. Cardenas drove in two runs with his 10th double.  

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 4, Lake County 7 
Box Score
A six-run third inning made all the difference in this game. The Kernels attempted a late-inning comeback, but it fell plenty short. 

In the top of the third inning, the Kernels tied the score at 1-1 when Walker Jenkins doubled to score Jose Salas. 

Jeremy Lee started the game giving up just one run over two innings. However, things just fell apart in the bottom of the third. The inning went single, single, double, single, walk, three-run homer, and walk. Lefty Samuel Perez came in and kept the Lake County hitters off balance. Lee’s final line was seven runs on eight hits and two walks in 2+ innings. Perez struck out three batters over two scoreless innings. 

Nolan Santos then struck out three batters in two scoreless, hitless innings. Xander Hamilton struck out one batter over two perfect innings. 

Down 7-1 going to the eighth, Rixon Wingrove led off that inning with his fourth home run since joining the Kernels. Jose Salas was hit by a pitch. He scored on a Kyle Hess double. With two outs, Gabriel Gonzalez doubled to drive in Hess with the third run of the inning, but that was it, and that’s how it ended. 

Jenkins was 2-for-4 with his 10th double. The Australian Wingrove went 2-for-4 with his fourth homer. Hess hit his ninth double, and Gonzalez’s double was his 18th of the season.  

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers, Clearwater (Game Suspended, 2nd inning)
Box Score
The Threshers and Mussels were supposed to play two games on Friday night after they were rained out on Thursday. Unfortunately, after just an inning-and-a-half yesterday, the rains came and the game was suspended and will resume as part of a doubleheader on Saturday. Game 2 is scheduled to be played as part of a doubleheader on Sunday. At least, they hope to. We’ll write more about this game tomorrow. The only real note at this point was that young Anthony Narvaez started for the Mussels. He issued one walk and had a strikeout in two scoreless, hitless innings. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Who gets your vote?
Marco Raya (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 74 pitches, 46 strikes (62.2%)
Christian MacLeod (Wichita) - 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 55 pitches, 34 strikes (61.8%)
Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 75 pitches, 50 strikes (66.7%).

Hitter of the Day – Who gets your vote?
Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 3-for-6, 2 BB, 2B(16), 3 R
Payton Eeles (St. Paul) - 2-for-7, 3B(3), BB, 4 RBI, 2K.
Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, HR(2), R, 3 RBI.
Anthony Prato (St. Paul) - 3-for-3, 2 BB, 2 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 Friday.

#1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-4, 2B(10), RBI.  
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Rehab St. Paul: Game 1: 0-for-4, RBI, K. 
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) - Rehab in FM: 0-for-1 (in Suspended Game)
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-4, 2B(18), RBI.    
#9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 2 K.  
#10 - Marco Raya (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K.  74 pitches, 46 strikes (62.6%)
#11 - Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - Game 2: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K. 75 pitches, 50 strikes (66.7%)
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 0-for-1 (in Suspended Game). 
#15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 2-for-4, 2B(16), R,
#16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 0-for-1, K. (in Suspended Game).
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 1-for-4, R 2 K.

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Omaha (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Aaron Rozek (0-4, 6.55 ERA)
Springfield @ Wichita (6:05 PM CST) – RHP Cory Lewis (1-4, 2.96 ERA) 
Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (6:00 PM CST) – LHP Connor Prielipp (0-1, 4.73 ERA)
Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (2:35 PM CST) – completion of Game 1 (TBD), RHP Adrian Bohorquez (0-0, 2.19 ERA) 

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

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