Jeremy Nygaard

The baseball games tonight give us a chance to clear our minds from the devastating news out of Boston. For those of you living in the nightmare, I think I can speak for everybody at TwinsDaily - creators, writers and readers - that our thoughts are with you during this difficult time. For as exciting (or depressing) as baseball can be, it's still just a game. But in tonight's game, Twins fans were excited to see Oswaldo Arcia make his major league debut. He didn't disappoint, ripping the second pitch he saw down the right-field line and alertly took second base on Josh Hamilton's error.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] In the 5th, he took a Michael Roth pitch deep to left-center, only to have Mike Trout and his super-powers catch it on the warning track. He also dropped a routine flyball, but, hey, it was his first game. The Twins, who ended their losing streak thanks to a great outing from Kevin Correia tonight, will have an interesting decision to make when the roster needs tinkering again. Let's look at what happened on the farm tonight: Fort Myers Miracle 4, Palm Beach Cardinals 1 Box Score The Miracle extended their season-opening winning streak to 11 games. I'm starting to get the feeling that Doug Mientkiewicz is the greatest manager in the history of baseball... or he at least has to have the best winning percentage. Tonight's win was brought to you buy The Bottom of the Order. Lance Ray, Jonathan Goncalves, Kyle Knudson and Stephen Wickens combined to go 9-for-12 with all four runs, three RBI, and a triple (Goncalves). And, of course, a courtesy Miguel Sano mention: 1-for-3 with a walk and strikeout... and his third error of the season. Tom Stuifbergen was great - 7.2 innings, four hits, one run and three strikeouts. Corey Williams came in with the tying runner on in the eighth, got the out and then recorded three more for his fourth save of the season. One Miracle player, who shall remain nameless, told me after win #10 that the "scary thing is... the team could play better." It's going to continue to be an exciting season. Jason Wheeler (1-0, 5.63) gets the afternoon start for the Miracle tomorrow. New Britain RockCats 5, New Hampshire FisherCats 3 Box Score The RockCats got a phenomenal start from southpaw Logan Darnell, helping the team climb back over .500 after losing their last two. Darnell went 6 2/3 innings, striking out eight and only giving up a lone run to pick up his first win of the year. Aaron Thompson made his season debut getting four outs (two on strikeouts) before Bobby Lanigan got roughed up a little in the ninth (allowed two runs and the tying runner to get to the plate). Michael Tonkin came in, threw one pitch and got the game's final out on a grounder to the second baseman James Beresford. The bats were alive... and full of singles. Only one (Reynaldo Rodriguez, double) of the 11 hits went for extra bases. Luckily, six of those hits came in the sixth inning where the RockCats scored all five of their runs. Danny Santana, Nate Hanson, Jason Christian and James Beresford all had two hits. Trevor May (0-1, 3.00) will make the start tomorrow night. Rochester Red Wings 1, Scranton/WB RailRiders 10 Box Score Rochester dropped to 2-9, which is the franchise's worst start in at least the last 45 years. P.J. Walters made it through six innings. He struck out five, but also gave up 13 hits (!) and five earned runs. Michael O'Connor was the only reliever to pitch an inning without giving up a run. Bruce Pugh gave up four runs. Daniel Turpen gave up one. Joe Benson was the offense's headliner with three hits and a stolen base. The team scattered ten hits, but were a Twins-like 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. One the season, the Red Wings are 15-for-91 (.164) with RISP. Not quite Hicksian, but disgustingly bad for sure. Kyle Gibson (0-1, 5.79) will hope to get the team's third win tomorrow. Cedar Rapids Kernels 2, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 14 Box Score Well, the ugly stick hit the Kernels tonight on their return to Cedar Rapids. Of note, Oswaldo Arcia's brother, Orlando, who plays for Wisconsin went 0-for-6 as the only Timber Rattler without a hit. Byron Buxton went 1-for-2 (.441) with his 4th stolen base of the year. Adam Walker, who hit 14 home runs last year for Elizabethton, hit his 1st of the year. Dalton (D.J.) Hicks, who earlier in the day was named Midwest Player of the Week, homered for his third time of the year. David Hurlbut took the loss, giving up three runs in five innings. Matt Tomshaw gave up six earned runs and got four outs. Josue Montanez got five outs and gave up five unearned runs. The Kernels will play a doubleheader tomorrow and it appears that Taylor Rogers (0-0, 0.00) and Brett Lee (1-0, 0.00 in two bullpen appearances) will get the starting nods. If you have any questions, comments or anything else you want to get off of your chest, you can leave a comment below or tweet me @jeremynygaard.

The Twins got an excellent outing from free-agent pick-up Kevin Correia, who worked into the 8th inning. Unfortunately, the Royals strung a few hits together and were able to chase Correia after taking a 3-1 lead. The Twins failed to rally in the 9th and lost their 3rd “Home Opener” of the season. (But remain undefeated in non-Home Openers.) Three of the club’s affiliates were in action this evening. Let’s take a look… [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Rochester Red Wings 2, Scranton/WB RailRiders 4 Box Score Congratulations to first baseman Chris Colabello, who was named International League Player of the Week for last week. Andrew Albers was originally slated to begin the season in New Britain’s bullpen. A BJ Hermsen injury sent him to their rotation. After Alex Burnett was waived, a spot in Rochester’s bullpen opened up. Soon after that, Pedro Hernandez took Cole De Vries’ spot in Minnesota’s rotation. Albers, whose minor-league career has been a journey, has been on a mini-journey in just the last week. His ultimate destination, Rochester’s rotation, is where Albers made his season debut tonight. Albers pitched very well before reaching his pitch limit with two outs in the fourth. He allowed a run on three hits and a walk. He struck out five, throwing 50 strikes on 76 pitches. Luis Perdomo had another rough outing, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks. He did strike out two, but used 32 pitches to record only four outs. Daniel Turpen allowed a run. Tyler Robertson, back in AAA, walked a batter in an otherwise uneventful inning. The bats didn’t offer much in terms of run support. Oswaldo Arcia, who, despite gaudy numbers, has avoided the prospect spotlight (thank Sano and Buxton for that), had another big game. His three singles led to him scoring both of Rochester’s runs. He also stole his first base of the year. Clete Thomas and Rey Olmedo both added two hits. Thomas drove in both runs and now has seven on the young season. Joe Benson, now batting .077, had his first double of the season. New Britain Rock Cats 9, Harrisburg Senators 2 Box Score New Britain continues their season-opening road trip in Harrisburg tonight. After winning their season opener, the Rock Cats lost their next three games. A change of venue proved to be enough to end the losing streak. The bats were alive for the Rock Cats. Danny Ortiz (now batting .400) led the charge with a double and a home run. Josmil Pinto had a three-run triple. Harold Garcia hit his second home run of the season. Antoan Richardson had two hits and a walk in the leadoff position. Danny Santana had three hits (to improve his average to .273). Blake Martin enters his 3rd season making spot-starts for the Rock Cats. Tonight, he worked three innings (66 pitches, 34 strikes), allowing only one run. He avoided trouble despite yielding two hits and walking four. He struck out two and now has an ERA of 1.69. Marty Popham (52 pitches, 28 strikes) walked two in three scoreless innings. He struck out four. Edgar Ibarra walked and struck out one in an inning. Nelvin Fuentes gave up a run on two hits in the ninth to close out the victory. Ft. Myers Miracle – DAY OFF after starting the season 4-0 D.J. Baxendale will make his season debut tomorrow night. Cedar Rapids Kernels 10, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 2 Box Score The story of the spring in the upper Midwest has been the cold weather. The Kernels opened in a cool, but seasonable, weekend in Cedar Rapids. Today, they headed north to Appleton, WI. Early this afternoon, first baseman DJ Hicks tweeted, “You know it’s cold when teammates are buying gloves and head masks for a game.” Shortstop Niko Goodrum later tweeted that on his way to the game he saw a frozen lake… for the first time in his life. Once the game started, in mid-30s “heat”, the story, again, was the Kernels. After jumping out to a 6-0 lead, the Kernels were able to coast to a 10-2 win. Another stellar pitching performance tonight, this time from David Hurlbut left Cedar Rapids in good shape. Hurlbut pitched six innings (70 pitches, 49 strikes) allowing three hits and two runs (a 2-run home run). He struck out five. Tyler Jones pitched two innings out of the bullpen, striking out two. Jones has been phenomenal. In 5.1 innings this year, he’s struck out eight and allowed zero hits. Chris Mazza closed out the game by striking out the side. He walked a batter and allowed an infield hit. The lineup added plenty of run support. All of the starters (besides catcher Jairo Rodriguez) recorded a hit. Seven of the nine batters scored. Byron Buxton hit his second home run of the season and drove in three runs, though he did prove human and strike out three times. DJ Hicks improved to .389 with two hits (a double). Adam Walker, back in his home state, drove in four runs on two hits (including a double). Travis Harrison hit his first home run. JD Williams showed his speed reaching base three times and stealing two bases. He was caught stealing once, but it brought Jake Mauer out to argue and sounded on the radio like it was a questionable call. (If you haven’t, listen to a Kernels baseball game on kmryradio.com. It’s fantastic. Broadcaster Morgan Hawk does a great job.) Tomorrow, Brett Lee will make his first start of the season. He picked up the win in Friday’s walk-off victory over Beloit. He wasn’t scheduled to pitch, but was needed due to the short bullpen that has since been added to.