Tom Froemming

Twins prospect Kaelen Culpepper is beginning to draw some more attention, and it’s easy to see why. He hit another home run on Wednesday, his fifth of the month for Cedar Rapids. Kyler Fedko also stayed hot for Wichita, continuing his impressive power breakout by collecting the first multi-homer game of his pro career. Today’s System Recap also includes some pitching highlights of Jose Olivares, Eli Jones and Cole Peschl. View full video

This goes way above me, Doctor. The divine Baseball Gods have jinxed the Twins. They could be playing against the New Ulm Yankees and lose. If there's any kind of Yankees tie in, we're hosed.

Happy Memorial Day! This marks the first day we’re allowed to look at the standings, and the Minnesota Twins are in pretty good shape. After taking a series against the Royals, the Twins are tied for second in the AL Central and sitting in an AL Wild Card spot. Not bad for a squad that had a nightmare start to its season. Minor league highlights in today’s recap feature Kaelen Culpepper, Kyle DeBarge, Mickey Gasper, David Festa, Darren Bowen, Marco Raya and Dasan Hill. View full video

Ow aw ow aw wa wa ouch ow FUNDER!

Image courtesy of Chris Paddack © Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Box Score Starting Pitcher: Chris Paddack: 5 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 90 pitches, 64 strikes (71.1%) Home Runs: Carlos Correa (4) Bottom 3 WPA: Brock Stewart -.204, Ryan Jeffers -.173, Kody Funderburk -.131 Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) You could see this loss coming from a mile away. The Minnesota Twins playing a game at George M. Steinbrenner Field? I mean, c’mon. Even if the Yankees were nowhere in sight, this was a predictable outcome. Tonight’s game was a pitcher’s duel until it very decisively was not. It was a scoreless tie with starters Chris Paddack and former Twin Zack Littell cruising into the bottom of the sixth inning. Paddack ran into some trouble there, surrendering a one-out single followed by a double. Brock Stewart took over for the Twins and served up a middle-middle sweeper to Jonathan Aranda, who hit it out for a three-run homer. Rocco Baldelli’s old buddy Kevin Cash said “hey, we could do that!” After Littell hit Ty France with a pitch, putting him on with one out, Cash decided he’d also had enough of the zeros. He brought Garrett Cleavinger in from the bullpen to … also give up a home run to the first batter he faced. Carlos Correa took him deep for a beautifully violent two-run homer blasted at 108.8 mph that traveled 417 feet. The teams traded zeros once again in the bottom of the seventh inning and top of the eighth before things really went sideways for the Twins. Justin Topa, who pitched a clean seventh inning, retired the only batter he faced in the eighth before Kody Funderburk took over. There wasn’t much fun about his outing this evening. Funderburk surrendered consecutive singles before recording the second out. He then got two strikes on José Caballero but couldn’t finish the deal. In Funderburk’s defense, it looked like Trevor Larnach should have been able to make a play on the ball Caballero hit to left field that ended up being a two-run double. Larnach made a leaping attempt at the warning track and appeared to have gotten some leather on it. Upon review, he probably didn’t need to leave his feet at all. It’s unlikely any spring training games Larnach has played at George M. Steinbrenner Field have been in the evenings with the lights on. There’s also no lights from a third deck in a minor league/spring training stadium like this, which is something Major Leaguers can become accustomed to (hat tip to the astute Seth Stohs on that observation). No matter the reason, Larnach didn’t look comfortable on this catch attempt. Danny Jansen, the next batter, ended a six-pitch at-bat by blasting a two-run homer to completely blow the game open. Larnach had an outside chance to redeem himself and make what would have been a spectacular rob job, but he missed by no more than a foot. Since the Twins only managed to score two runs, everything that unfolded in that ugly eighth inning didn’t actually have any impact on the final outcome. This was the fourth time in the past seven games the Twins failed to score three runs or more. What’s Next? It’s another one at George M. Steinbrenner Field Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 pm CT. Joe Ryan looks to finish off a strong May in which he has pitched to a 1.96 ERA while striking out 28 batters in 23 innings pitched. He’ll be facing his former organization for the third time in his career. The Rays counter with 24-year-old right-hander Taj Bradley, who has pitched much better at home (3.72 ERA) than on the road (6.20 ERA) so far this season. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet THU FRI SAT SUN MON TOT Topa 0 0 34 0 17 51 Durán 0 0 23 18 0 41 Funderburk 0 0 0 0 31 31 Sands 0 14 0 12 0 26 Alcalá 0 0 26 0 0 26 Jax 0 11 12 0 0 23 Varland 0 9 0 12 0 21 Stewart 0 3 7 0 11 21 View full article

Given the history of how they've handled guys on rehab assignment, I'm guessing it was just a scheduled off day for him. Wallner had played both Thursday and Friday. That's somewhat unusual in itself, as they don't typically let guys go back-to-back right away when rehabbing. This has been a weird weather week, though, so maybe the earlier postponements had some impact on their plan with him.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 29-22 St. Paul Saints: 25-22 Wichita Wind Surge: 23-21 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 25-18 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 20-24 FCL Twins: 9-6 DSL Twins: Season starts June 2. TRANSACTIONS Fort Myers activated infielder Peyton Carr from the 7-day IL. SAINTS SENTINEL Game 1: Norfolk 12, St. Paul 1 Box Score This was a statement performance from Marco Raya. The 22-year-old entered today struggling mightily in his first full exposure to Triple-A competition. Maybe all he needed to get into gear is for us here at Twins Daily to start wondering if he should be moved to the bullpen. No matter the reason for tonight’s impressive performance, it was great to see from the young right-hander. Raya immediately showed he was poised to impress, striking out the side in order in the first inning on 12 pitches while tallying five swinging strikes. He kept it rolling in the second inning, striking out the side in order once again. Norfolk finally put the ball in play a couple times in the third frame, though Raya turned in another perfect inning. Pitching into the fourth inning for the first time this season, Raya capped his outing with a 1-2-3 frame. When all was said and done, Raya had delivered four perfect innings with seven strikeouts. He threw 32 of his 49 pitches for strikes, which is 65 percent. Entering tonight’s outing, Raya had only thrown 56 percent of his pitches for strikes on the season. Raya topped out at 97.4 mph and got six of his 13 whiffs on his curveball. Per Baseball Savant, he deployed his six-pitch arsenal remarkably evenly, throwing no individual offering more than 10 times among his 49 total pitches. Could this be a turning point for Raya? Time will tell, but if nothing else it was a great reminder of what he looks like when everything is clicking. As for the rest of this game, uh … I guess it could be summed up by saying Anthony Prato pitched. He’s not a pitcher. The St. Paul bullpen combined to walk nine men in just 2 2/3 innings (not counting the out Prato recorded). Yuck. And it’s not like the lineup was firing on all cylinders, either. The only Saints run came on Mike Ford’s eighth homer of the season. Game 2: St. Paul 6, Norfolk 4 Box Score Speaking of Anthony Prato, he hit a home run in this game. Defensively, he started at third base and ended up playing center field. If they asked him to sell popcorn in the stands, I bet he’d do that too. That guy can do anything! Mickey Gasper continues to turn into Superman whenever he dons a Saints uniform. He blasted a pair of homers, giving him nine home runs in 21 games with St. Paul. Andrew Morris got off to a rough start in this one, surrendering three runs and three extra-base hits in the first couple innings. He gutted through a solid outing from there forward, thanks in part to some nice work from his defense. The Saints had an excellent and unique double play to end the top of the third inning. The Norfolk batter hit one into the tricky right field corner at CHS Field, where things get tight toward the pole as a shorter wall in foul territory angles toward the field of play. Right fielder Jeferson Morales anticipated the carom perfectly, playing the bounce off the wall in foul territory and firing an on-target one hopper to second base. The throw beat the runner by a mile. Shortstop Ryan Fitzgerald ran the batter back toward first base while monitoring the other runner, who had already advanced from first to third on the hit. Fitzgerald eventually tossed to first baseman Jose Miranda, who put the tag on the hitter to get one out. While this was happening, the other base runner broke for home. Miranda quickly fired to catcher Patrick Winkel, who put on the tag. It was a bang-bang play, but the Saints got the out there, as well. That’s some fine team defense. It’s not often you see four different players touch the ball on the same play. Morris surrendered a solo homer in the fourth inning, but turned in scoreless frames in both the fifth and sixth innings. Though he gave up four runs on eight hits and a walk, Morris also delivered some length, completing six innings for the first time this season. He threw over 70 percent of his pitches for strikes, which is incredible. For context, the current MLB average strike rate is 63.7 percent so far this season. Oh, and Morris also topped out at 99.0 mph. WIND SURGE WISDOM San Antonio 5, Wichita 2 Box Score Christian MacLeod turned in another scoreless outing. The left-hander started out this season a bit behind, so he’s still building up his innings and pitch count, but in that process he’s also pitched very well. He kept his momentum going tonight, delivering four shutout innings of one-hit ball for the Wind Surge. He did also walk three batters, but managed to strand them all thanks in part to five strikeouts. MacLeod, a fifth-round pick from the 2021 Draft, has a 0.73 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 24 2/3 innings so far this season. He made a spot start for the Saints his last time out and figures to see more time up in Triple A as the season progresses, especially if he keeps this up. This game was locked in a 0-0 tie through five innings but the Wind Surge finally scratched across a couple of runs in the top of the sixth. Unfortunately, that lead didn’t last long. Shortstop Tanner Schobel committed a pair of errors in the bottom of the sixth, contributing to what ended up being a five-run inning for San Antonio. The first Schobel error was on a grounder hit right at him and the second was on a high infield pop fly that the wind got creative with. Ben Ross also nearly made a pair of fine tumbling catches in center field that inning but both bounced off his glove. That was it for the scoring; all seven runs in this game came in the sixth frame. It wasn’t all bad for Schobel tonight, as he hit his 12th double of the season and scored a run. He’s hitting .301 with an .825 OPS for Wichita. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 12, Fort Wayne 4 Box Score The Kernels tallied 12 runs despite the fact they only had one extra-base hit, a double by Nate Baez. Cedar Rapids drew a dozen walks, two of which were with the bases loaded. They also had a run-scoring hit by pitch. While the run-scoring effort wasn’t highlighted by big blasts, the Kernels did a nice job of keeping the line moving and running the bases well. The lineup was 6-for-18 with runners in scoring position and were successful on all three of their stolen base attempts. One of the steals came from Kyle DeBarge, who is a perfect 24-for-24 on stolen base attempts this season. Cedar Rapids starting pitcher Chase Chaney did a nice job of providing length, covering six innings while throwing 103 pitches, 70 of which were strikes. He struck out seven batters. In addition to having the only Kernels extra-base hit, Baez also had a single and drew a pair of walks. Kaelen Culpepper also reached safely four times, hitting a pair of singles to go with two walks. He also stole his 11th base of the season and has a .941 OPS so far in 2025. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 5, Lakeland 4 (10 innings) Box Score Dasan Hill’s start got off to a nightmarish opening. He gave up a leadoff ground rule double, which was immediately followed by a two-run homer. Then Hill woke up and retired the next seven batters he faced. The 19-year-old lefty struck out five batters in his 2 2/3 innings, topping out at 97.4 mph. Six of his 11 swinging strikes came on his changeup. This game was a back-and-forth affair. Fort Myers took the lead on three different occasions, but Lakeland kept clawing their way back and tying things up. The Mussels scored immediately in extra innings, with Dameury Pena hitting a seeing-eye single on the first pitch of the top of the 10th inning to score the bonus runner. Pena stole second base, but was stranded there. It was up to Hunter Hoopes to protect the lead in the bottom of the 10th, a difficult task given that pesky bonus runner starting at second base in extras. Hoopes, who had pitched a scoreless ninth inning, retired the first batter he faced on a ground out to third base, preventing the bonus runner from advancing. A five-pitch walk set up a potential game-ending double play, but framing things this way is always wishful thinking, right? Well, not this time. On the very next pitch, the Lakeland hitter sent the ball rolling toward second base. While there is no such thing as a routine double play ball in the lower minors, the Mussels looked smooth on this one. Dameury Pena gathered the ball and did a backhand shovel toss over to shortstop Angel Del Rosario, who avoided the sliding runner and fired a strong throw to first base to end the game. The Mighty Mussels improved to 5-0 in extra innings, and are just 15-24 in games that don’t go into extras. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Red Sox 5, FCL Twins 3 Box Score Today’s game mirrored the output the FCL Twins lineup has put together on the season so far. The club is doing a decent job of getting on — posting an above league average on-base percentage — but little else is going well. They entered today with the worst team batting average (.183) and second-worst slugging percentage (.304) in the FCL. The Twins drew five walks in this seven-inning game, two of them by Bryan Acuña, but collected just three hits. Jayson Bass was the only Twin with an extra-base knock, a double. Twins starting pitcher Joel Garcia gave up three runs on five hits and three walks over his three innings of work. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day: Marco Raya, St. Paul: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 49 pitches Hitter of the Day: Mickey Gasper, St. Paul: 4-for-8, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 0-for-0, 3 BB 6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-4, 2 BB, R, 2 RBI, SB (11) 7. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 49 pitches 8. Andrew Morris (St. Paul): 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 87 pitches 9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, BB, 2 R, RBI, K 10. Dasan Hill (Fort Myers): 2 2/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 49 pitches 11. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-3, 2 BB, R, 2 RBI, K, SB (24) 14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita): 1-for-4, K 16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 0-for-4, 2 K 17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2B, R, K, 2 E 20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 0-for-4, RBI TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul vs. Norfolk, 5:07 pm CT: Darren McCaughan Wichita at San Antonio, 1:05 pm CT: Trent Baker Cedar Rapids at Fort Wayne, 5:35 pm CT: Alejandro Hidalgo Fort Myers at Lakeland, 11:00 am CT: Michael Ross View full article

Matt Wallner crushed two home runs in the first game of his rehab assignment with the Saints and word is that Carlos Correa will be activated off the IL tomorrow. The Twins have dealt with a lot of injuries of late, but things seem to be coming together. Tonight’s recap includes highlights of Twins prospects Kaelen Culpepper, Connor Prielipp, Gabriel Gonzalez and Emmanuel Rodriguez. View full video

The Minnesota Twins carried a 13-game winning streak and 34-inning scoreless streak into Sunday’s game but both were snapped. It was a magical run for the team, especially the pitching staff, and hopefully a sign of more quality ball to come. Longtime minor leaguers Ryan Fitzgerald and Carson McCusker both made their MLB debuts over the weekend in Milwaukee. On the minor league side, tonight’s System Recap includes highlights of prospects Dasan Hill, Andrew Morris, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Kaelen Culpepper, Kyler Fedko, Rayne Doncon and Kyle DeBarge. View full video

You might be onto something. It’s possible they put KC on the Keaschall track. He was promoted to Double-A on May 28 last year.

Image courtesy of Image courtesy of David Malamut CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 25-20 (12 straight wins!!!) St. Paul Saints: 21-19 Wichita Wind Surge: 20-17 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 22-14 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 17-20 FCL Twins: 5-4 DSL Twins: Season starts June 2. TRANSACTIONS The Twins selected the contract of Ryan Fitzgerald from the Saints. He made his major league debut on Friday night. He’s a 30-year-old utility man and former indy ball guy who has 378 career Triple-A games to his credit. Cody Christie did an excellent writeup on Fitzgerald earlier today, here’s the link. LHP Jaylen Nowlin was promoted up from Wichita to St. Paul and Wichita activated OF Allen Cerda. IF Rayne Doncon started a rehab assignment with Fort Myers and RHP Christian Becerra started a rehab assignment with the FCL Twins. SAINTS SENTINEL Iowa 12, St. Paul 7 Box Score Tyler Beede made his first start for the Saints after coming out of the bullpen his previous four outings. It did not go well. The 31-year-old former big leaguer gave up four runs while recording five outs. Things didn’t get much better for the St. Paul pitching staff from there. Cubs prospect Matt Shaw led the way with a pair of homers, but the I-Cubs had five different players who recorded three hits tonight. Wow. The Saints lineup was able to hang with Iowa through the early innings, as this game entered the fifth inning tied at 7-7. Edouard Julien led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run in what ended up being a four-run inning. Mickey Gasper also homered, his seventh in 15 games with the Saints. Emmanuel Rodriguez homered, as well, though he also struck out four times tonight. Carson McCusker was 1-for-5 and also struck out four times. He also committed his first error of the season. WIND SURGE WISDOM Arkansas 10, Wichita 4 Box Score It wasn’t a great night for the Wind Surge, but the lineup accomplished an odd feat. All nine hitters collected exactly one hit. That’s not particularly noteworthy, I suppose, but it is strange to see. Unfortunately, the result was only four runs on a night their pitching staff struggled. Kyler Fedko hit his sixth home run of the season, already giving him double the amount he hit last year. The 2021 12th-rounder also has a .403 on-base percentage so far this season. The other Wichita extra-base hits were doubles from Ricardo Olivar and Tanner Schobel. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 13, Peoria 2 Box Score This Kernels lineup is popping off. They scored 13 runs tonight, their third double-digit output in their past four games. While they’re certainly peaking at the moment, this club has been impressive at the dish all year so far. Cedar Rapids leads the Midwest League in on-base percentage by 21 points and holds a 41-point lead in slugging percentage. Kaelen Culpepper led off and led the way, going 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs, his first multi-homer game in pro ball. He surpassed the 100-plate appearance mark on the season tonight and is hitting .304/.398/.490 (.888 OPS) while providing strong defense at shortstop. Brandon Winokur and Jaime Ferrer also homered for the Kernels tonight, and it was Ferrer’s first home run of the season. Danny De Andrade had a two-hit night and was hit by a pitch. Gabriel Gonzalez, who is typically an aggressive swinger, drew a pair of walks tonight. This was just his fourth time drawing multiple walks in 113 games since joining the Twins org. Jeremy Lee and Kade Bragg combined to tag team this game on the mound. Lee gave up two runs, one earned, over the first five frames before Bragg delivered four shutout innings of relief while striking out six. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 9, Jupiter 4 Box Score The Mussels trailed 4-1 entering the sixth inning but scored eight unanswered runs to storm back and take the victory. This was the first game of Rayne Doncon’s rehab assignment. He played third base and went 1-for-3 with a walk and scored two runs. Yasser Mercedes had a big game, hitting a home run and stealing his 15th base of the season. He’s yet to be thrown out attempting to steal this season. Maddux Houghton also homered and stole a base for Fort Myers. Dylan Questad has taken great strides in his strike-throwing ability to this point, but he looked more like his 2024 self tonight. The former fifth-rounder had more walks than innings pitched last year, but entered tonight with a 3.4 BB/9 in 21 innings in 2025. He recorded eight outs and walked four batters, hitting another. Questad also had five strikeouts, for what it’s worth. Zander Sechrist delivered 2 1/3 innings of shutout ball out of the Mussels bullpen. The 23-year-old undrafted free agent has a 1.98 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 27 1/2 innings. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Red Sox 5, FCL Twins 2 Box Score The Twins fell behind 4-0 in the first four innings and couldn’t muster a comeback. On the mound, Matt Gabbert and Christian Becerra got some work in on their rehab assignments before St. Louis Park native Mitch Mueller finished things off. Gabbert got knocked around a bit (three runs on six hits over three innings), Becerra only surrendered an unearned run in his two frames and Mueller struck out three while yielding a run in his two innings. At the plate, the only extra-base hits for the Twins came from Yandro Hernandez (a double) and Eduardo Beltre (a triple). Catcher Ricardo Pena had a single and a walk. He has a .667 on-base percentage through his first five games of the season. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day: Jeremy Lee (Cedar Rapids): 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K Hitter of the Day: Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, 2 HR (4), 3 R, 4 RBI PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 1-for-5, HR (3), R, 2 RBI, 4 K 6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, 2 HR (4), 3 R, 4 RBI 9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-5, HR (3), R, 2 RBI, K 11. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, 3B, R, RBI, K 14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-3, 2 BB, R 16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 1-for-3, 3B 17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2B, BB, R, K 18. Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers): 2-for-5, HR (3), SB (15), 2 R, RBI 19. Carson McCusker (St. Paul): 1-for-5, 4 K 20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 1-for-5, 2B, R, 2 RBI TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul at Iowa, 6:08 pm CT: David Festa Wichita vs. Arkansas, 4:05 pm CT: Darren Bowen Cedar Rapids vs. Peoria, 6:35 pm CT: Ty Langenberg Fort Myers at Jupiter, 3:00 pm CT: Eli Jones FCL Twins at FCL Red Sox, 9:00 am CT: TBD View full article

The Minnesota Twins swept the Orioles, extending their winning streak to 11 games, but they may have lost their two star players in the process. Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton collided in the field and both were evaluated for concussions. On a positive note, Payton Eeles is back! He started a rehab assignment with Fort Myers. There are highlights of his 2025 debut as well as some Adrian Bohorquez and Khadim Diaw highlights in tonight’s System Recap. View full video

The Minnesota Twins walked off the Giants to cap a weekend series sweep. An unlikely hero emerged to deliver the Twins eighth straight win, as DaShawn Keirsey Jr. hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning. Today’s System Recap tackles the entire weekend of games and features some highlights of pitching prospect Eli Jones and St. Paul Saints hitters Emmanuel Rodriguez and Carson McCusker. View full video

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey (photo of Kala'i Rosario) CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 19-20 St. Paul Saints: 18-15 Wichita Wind Surge: 17-14 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 19-11 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 15-16 FCL Twins: 4-1 TRANSACTIONS Wichita RHP C.J. Culpepper was transferred from the 7-day IL to the 60-day IL. The same can be said for Kernels LHP Rafael Marcano. Cedar Rapids sent RHP Matt Gabbert on rehab assignment to the FCL Twins. SAINTS SENTINEL Buffalo 17, St. Paul 3 Box Score Marco Raya had a nightmare start. Unfortunately, that was a trend across the system this evening. The top of the first inning in St. Paul started with a single, another single, a three-run homer, a single, a single, an RBI single and a walk. The first Buffalo batter retired was their No. 8 hitter. Raya gave up six runs on seven hits and a walk in his only inning of work and has a 12.46 ERA in 13 innings so far this year. The Saints bullpen wasn’t able to do much better. Buffalo had already scored 12 runs by the fourth inning. Mickey Gasper, last night’s hero, played his eighth game for the Saints and hit his fifth home run. He had a four-hit night and boasts a 1.625 OPS in his brief time with St. Paul. Emmanuel Rodriguez hit his first homer of the year, a sky high opposite field blast. Jose Miranda returned to action and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. He played third base for seven innings. Eduardo Julien was 0-for-3 with an RBI and a strikeout. Carson McCusker was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 5, Northwest Arkansas 3 Box Score This game was a shutout on both sides until the bottom of the sixth inning. Wind Surge starter Aaron Rozek was cruising until Jac Caglianone, the No. 34 overall prospect per Baseball America, blasted a three-run homer. It felt like that homer may have been a fatal blow, but the Wind Surge lineup had a couple haymakers of their own to deliver. Tanner Schobel lined a double to leadoff the seventh inning, but the next two batters were retired. Just when it felt like the Naturals might escape, Kala’l Rosario crushed an opposite-field two-run homer. Wichita kept the two-out rally rolling. Ben Ross singled, Aaron Sabato drew a walk and Andrew Cossetti socked a three-run homer to complete the comeback and put the Wind Surge up 5-3. Rozek had a quality start and managed to stick around long enough to earn the win. He struck out four batters over six innings and did not issue a walk. Rickey Castro delivered a pair of scoreless innings out of the bullpen while striking out three batters. Jaylen Nowlin finished things off with a scoreless ninth inning to earn his first career save. KERNELS NUGGETS Beloit 8, Cedar Rapids 4 Box Score It was a rough start for Jose Olivares. He’d been pitching so great so far this season, but couldn’t get out of the first inning tonight. The most polished silver lining you’ve ever seen: Both of his outs were recorded via strikeout. Olivares faced eight batters. He walked two, hit one and threw two wild pitches. Giving up five earned runs skyrocketed his ERA on the season from 0.66 to 3.77. The Kernels lineup went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and combined to strike out 13 times. Caden Kendle, Gabriel Gonzalez and Jose Salas all had multi-hit games. Kendle slugged his second home run of the season and stole a base. MUSSEL MATTERS Dunedin 9, Fort Myers 1 Box Score It was also a rough start for Michael Carpenter. In fact, I could basically copy/paste everything I wrote about Olivares’ start for the Kernels. Carpenter, a lefty out of Madison Community College, only recorded two outs. Jacob Kisting, who was born in Madison, stabilized the game as the first man out of the Mussels bullpen. He delivered 4 1/3 innings of two-run ball and struck out four batters. Dameury Pena was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. The only other Fort Myers hit came from Yohander Martinez. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 2, FCL Red Sox 0 Box Score Three FCL Twins pitchers combined for the seven-inning shutout, with Matt Gabbert throwing two perfect innings to get things started, Hendry Chivilli covered the next two innings and St. Louis Park native Mitch Mueller finishing off the final three frames. Chivilli was among the centerpieces of the Twins 2023 international signing class … as a shortstop. He was ranked as the No. 38 prospect of that class by MLB Pipeline. He hit .194/.301/.282 (.583 OPS) with a 33.2 K% in 256 plate appearances over the past two seasons, so they’re trying something different. The Twins scored their runs on an error and a balk. Complex baseball, ladies and gentlemen! TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day: Aaron Rozek, Wichita (6 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 74 pitches, 49 strikes) Hitter of the Day: Mickey Gasper, St. Paul (4-for-5, HR, 2B, R, RBI) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 2-for-4, HR (1), R, RBI, K 6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, RBI, 2 K 7. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 35 pitches 9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, 2B, 2 K 14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-5, 2B, K 16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 SB (2) 17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2B, R 18. Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers): 0-for-2, 2 BB 19. Carson McCusker (St. Paul): 1-for-4, 2 K 20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 1-for-4 TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul vs. Buffalo, 2:07 pm CT: Zebby Matthews Wichita at Northwest Arkansas, 6:35 pm CT: Christian MacLeod Cedar Rapids at Beloit, 1:05 pm CT: Jeremy Lee Fort Myers vs. Dunedin, 5:05 pnm CT: Dasan Hil View full article

The Minnesota Twins finished off a three-game sweep of the Orioles Thursday, winning 5-2. It was the fifth straight win for the Twins, who are now 11-5 in their last 16 games. Down on the farm, Connor Prielipp impressed in his outing for Wichita. Kyle DeBarge had another good game for Cedar Rapids, but it ended with him exiting after being hit on the wrist with a 97 mph fastball. View full video