Tom Froemming

Box Score Gibson: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 67.0% strikes (59 of 88 pitches) Home Runs: Gonzalez (6), Buxton (6) Multi-Hit Games: Castro (3-for-4, 2B), Gonzalez (2-for-5, 2B, HR), Buxton (2-for-3, HR, BB), Rosario (2-for-4, BB) WPA of +0.1: Gonzalez .168, Gibson .151, Polanco .125, Castro .107 WPA of -0.1: None (chart via FanGraphs) Gonzalez, who hit .299/.370/.443 (.814 OPS) in May, had a go-ahead RBI double and a solo home run today. He also had a flyout that had an exit velocity of 99 mph and traveled 379 feet. Marwin accounted for three of the five longest balls hit in today’s game, those three balls traveling a combined 1,201 feet. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1134896671022706689 Gonzalez has played a different position each game of this series so far. He’s moved across the diamond, going from third base Thursday to shortstop last night to first base this afternoon. He contributed there, as well, making a few nice scoops and stretches. The Twins’ bullpen, subject of constant nitpickery, was also solid today. That unit combined to cover the final four innings of this game, and the only run they surrendered was on a 67.4 mph Ryne Harper curveball below the zone that Christian Arroyo somehow muscled out for his first homer of the year. Tampa Bay starter Yonny Chirinos was nasty early on, but the Twins seemed to figure him out as the game progressed. They were having a tough time with Chirinos’ slider in particular, but he left one up on an 0-2 count to Byron Buxton in the fourth inning that resulted in an RBI single. Buxton also hit a solo homer with two strikes off reliever Hunter Wood in the sixth inning. Chirinos ended up with seven strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings and got 19 swinging strikes on his 91 pitches. Even with that nastiness, the Twins lineup was able to get nine hits off him. Kyle Gibson had basically the opposite experience. He wasn’t overpowering Tampa Bay, but he managed to make pitches when he really needed to. After the Twins took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third inning, it was starting to feel like Gibson might unravel in the bottom of that frame. He labored through, requiring 28 pitches to get through it, but he managed to hold the Rays off the board and stranded the bases loaded. Gibson followed that grind of an inning up with a quick 1-2-3 fourth inning that required just 10 pitches. He ran into some more trouble in the fifth, but pitched around a leadoff single. In his five innings, the Rays were 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position against Gibson and stranded seven runners on base. The only run he gave up was unearned. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Game Sun at TB, 12:10 pm CT (Odorizzi-TBD) Last Game MIN 5, TB 3: Twins Rally, Top Rays Late More from Twins Daily Twins Minor League Hitter of the Month - May 2019 Twins Minor League Report (5/31): Cave Walks Off Boshers, Everybody Wins! How the 2018 Twins Draft Looks One Year Later

TRANSACTIONS -RHP Cole Sands has been promoted from Cedar Rapids up to Fort Myers. -RHP Tanner Howell was activated from extended spring training and assigned to Fort Myers. -Fort Myers also placed RHP Ricky Ramirez on the 7-Day IL due to lumbar back spasms. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 5, Buffalo 4 (10 innings) Box Score Lewis Thorpe: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 66.3% strikes (55 of 83 pitches) HR: John Andreoli (6) Multi-hit games: Jake Cave (2-for-5) The Wings trailed 4-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning in this one, but battled back and ended up winning on a Jake Cave walk-off single. Buddy Boshers was on the mound, which is notable not only because he’s a former Twin, but also because Cave delivered against a lefty. In that big bottom of the eighth, John Andreoli hit a two-run homer and Zander Wiel came through with a game-tying RBI double. The Rochester bullpen was steller tonight. Andrew Vasquez struck out a pair of batters in a perfect inning, Jake Reed also struck out a pair in his two shutout frames and D.J. Baxendale managed to hold Buffalo off the board in the 10th, always an impressive accomplishment with the bonus runner starting the inning on second base in extras. Speaking of which, Andreoli started the bottom of the 10th at second for the Red Wings. Boshers won a seven-pitch battle with Nick Gordon, striking him out to open the inning, but then hit LaMonte Wade with a curveball and walked Wiel on four pitches to load the bases. That’s when Cave provided the game-winning hit. BLUE WAHOO BITES Pensacola 2, Mississippi 1 Box Score Andro Cutura: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 62.5% strikes (35 of 56 pitches) HR: Mark Contreras (2) Multi-hit games: Travis Blankenhorn (2-for-4) This was a hard-fought win for the Blue Wahoos. Mark Contreras hit a solo home run in the third, Pensacola’s only extra-base hit all night, and Jimmy Kerrigan added an RBI single in the fourth. The bullpen was tasked with making that lead hold up. After Andro Cutura pitched four shutout innings, Adam Bray came in and gave up consecutive singles to open the fifth. Mississippi would scratch across a run that inning, but Bray didn’t give up a hit the next two innings. Anthony Vizcaya was the next man in. Making his Double-A debut, Vizcaya struck out three batters over two scoreless innings to earn the save. He was helped out by Kerrigan, who made a great diving catch in centerfield. Mitch Garver caught all nine innings, was 1-for-4 at the plate and scored a run. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 8, Lakeland 3 Box Score Melvi Acosta: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 57.1% strikes (36 of 63 pitches) HR: Aaron Whitefield (4), Ryan Jeffers (5) Multi-hit games: Whitefield (2-for-5, 2B, HR), Jeffers (2-for-5, HR), Trevor Larnach (2-for-4, BB), Hunter Lee (2-for-4) As I mentioned in the intro, Jordan Balazovic started this game. He struck out a couple batters in 1 1/3 innings of perfect ball before a rain delay forced him out of this game. Once play resumed, Melvi Acosta took over for the Miracle. Aaron Whitefield hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning. Whitefield also doubled and scored on a Hunter Lee two-run single in the eighth in what was another nice night for the Miracle lineup. Ryan Jeffers hit his fifth home run, Trevor Larnach reached safely in three of his five plate appearances and Lewin Diaz had a single and a walk. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Beloit 5 Box Score Tyler Palm: 3.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 61.3% strikes (46 of 75 pitches) HR: Andrew Bechtold (4) Multi-hit games: Ben Rodriguez (2-for-3, BB) The Kernels were trailing 4-3 after a busy first three innings, but things stayed that way until the eighth. Beloit retired the first two Cedar Rapids hitters, then melted down. Four straight walks followed by a fielding error by the pitcher resulted in a three-run inning for the Kernels. Jose Martinez was great over the middle innings for Cedar Rapids, throwing four one-hit innings while striking out four batters. Zach Neff gave up an unearned run over the final two frames and earned his first save of the season. The bats didn’t do a lot of damage. They combined for just five hits, and Andrew Bechtold’s solo home run was the only that went for extra bases. But they also drew six walks, two of which came from Jacob Pearson. STARS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Jose Martinez, Cedar Rapids Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Jake Cave, Rochester TOP PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed 1. Royce Lewis (FM): 0-for-5, 3 K 2. Alex Kirilloff (PNS): 0-for-1, 2 BB, E (fielding at 1B) 4. Trevor Larnach (FM): 2-for-4, BB, K 8. Lewis Thorpe (ROC): 6.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 66.3% strikes (55 of 83 pitches) 11. Nick Gordon (ROC): 0-for-3, BB, R, RBI, 2 K 13. Ryan Jeffers (FM): 2-for-5, HR (5), R, RBI 14. Ben Rortvedt (PNS): 0-for-3, 2 K 16. Gilberto Celestino (CR): 0-for-5 18. LaMonte Wade (ROC): 1-for-4, HBP 20. Jose Miranda (FM): 1-for-5, R, K SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Buffalo, 6:05 pm CT (Sean Poppen) Pensacola vs. Mississippi, 6:05 pm CT (Jeff Ames) Fort Myers at Lakeland, 5:00 pm CT (Jhoan Duran) Cedar Rapids at Beloit, 6:30 pm CT (Josh Winder) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the games.

Box Score Odorizzi: 5.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 62.4% strikes (58 of 93 pitches) Home Runs: Rosario (16), Kepler (12) Multi-Hit Games: Kepler (2-for-4, 2B, HR) WPA of +0.1: Odorizzi .249, Rosario .190 WPA of -0.1: None (chart via FanGraphs) The Twins drew more than 3.2 million people in their first season at Target Field. Attendance increased by more than 800,000 overall, or roughly 10,000 per game, over the prior year. The prospect of being able to spend time watching a good Major League Baseball team outdoors once again really lit a fire under this fanbase. We all know what happened after that. I think it’s fair to say Twins Territory is filled with a great number of frontrunners, and that portion of the fans has been pretty dormant. And that’s OK, there are a lot of other great summer activities to compete with baseball. But it’s clear now they've been waiting, sometimes impatiently, ready to embrace the next good Twins team. There’s still definitely some cautious optimism in the air, not everyone is quite ready to get completely swept off their feet, but with each victory you can feel it. People are letting their guard down. They’re starting to believe. The team is the talk of the town, fans are showing up and Twins merch is being brought out from the back of closets. The Twins got off to a slow start this afternoon. Well, I mean by their standards. They were held off the board for the entire first two innings of this game. They didn’t even have a hit! Byron Buxton got things going with a single, then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error on the play. Max Kepler drove him home on a double, Jorge Polanco walked and Eddie Rosario blasted a three-run home run. That’s more like it, guys. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1132726880581312512 Another thing about Minnesota sports fans is once we’re invested, once the expectations are high, we’ll completely overreact to even the tiniest slip. This past Friday, Randball’s Stu brilliantly highlighted that panic reflex in a hilarious piece titled Twins Fan Ready to Overreact to 3-Game Losing Streak. I got a good laugh at that article this week, but you’d better believe I’m gonna turn right into his fictional character Karl Paulson the minute they do lose three straight. This is so much fun. There might not be a better player who represents the shift in the Twins fandom experience from constant anxiety and fear for the worst to pure, unbridled joy than Jake Odorizzi. Even when he’d be pitching well last year, you just knew the wheels were going to fall off. This year, he’s been one of the best pitchers in baseball. Odorizzi gave up just one hit and struck out nine batters over 5 1/3 scoreless innings. His ERA dropped to 2.16. The length of his starts will give your friend Jack from St. Paul something to continue griping about, but Odorizzi has been brilliant so far this season. But what about the bullpen? DUN DUN DUUUUN! (Sorry, still no dramatic sound effects available for the game recaps, that was the best I could do. Use your imagination.) There’s nothing that creates more cause for concern with Twins fans than the bullpen. Naturally, that’s pretty much all anybody wants to talk about these days. Well, so far so good, and Sunday was another good performance from that unit. Max Kepler hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to provide plenty of breathing room. That certainly helped, but four relievers combined to hold the White Sox scoreless over the final 3 2/3 innings. Tyler Duffey struck out six batters over the final two innings. Yes, that Tyler Duffey. That’s how you know everything is coming up TC these days. Again, this is so much fun. Postgame With Rosario https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1132758007845015552 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Game Mon vs. MIL, 6:10 pm (Pineda-Gonzalez) Last Game MIN 8, CHW 1: Gibby Sizzles Over 7 Solid Innings More from Twins Daily Injuries Have Been Huge, Unfortunate Story of Twins Minor League Season When the Twins Go Buying ... Who Are They Selling? Twins' Offense Having a Barrel of Fun

TRANSACTIONS -Zack Littell was recalled by the Twins while Austin Adams was designed for assignment. -Darren Wolfson reported that Randy Dobnak is being promoted to Rochester. RED WINGS REPORT Game 1: Pawtucket 6, Rochester 1 (7 innings) Box Score Lewis Thorpe: 4.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 63.6% (49 of 77 pitches) HR: John Andreoli (5) Multi-hit games: None Not a whole lot to report from the first game of Rochester’s doubleheader. Lewis Thorpe had a solid, albeit short, start. His ERA has dropped from 8.19 down to 6.31 over his last three starts. Andrew Vasquez also had an encouraging outing, striking out three batters over 1 2/3 scoreless innings. The Wings’ only run scored on John Andreoli’s fifth home run of the season. Game 2: Pawtucket 6, Rochester 1 (7 innings) Box Score D.J. Baxendale: 2.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 52.2% strikes (24 of 46 pitches) HR: None Multi-hit games: None Yep, these teams played two games that ended in the exact same score Friday. The Red Wings went with a bullpen game in this one. D.J. Baxendale gave up three runs in his two innings of work and Zack Weiss surrendered three runs in 2 1/3 inning. Ryan Eades followed with 1 2/3 scoreless innings before Trevor Hildenberger pitched a clean seventh inning. Between the majors and Triple A, Hildenberger hadn’t registered a scoreless appearance in five outings, giving up 14 earned runs over 5 1/3 innings over that stretch. Here’s hoping tonight’s performance results in some positive momentum for him. The Red Wings mustered just three hits, Drew Maggi’s double being the only one that went for extra bases. Their only run was scored on a Jake Cave bases-loaded double play. BLUE WAHOO BITES Tennessee 5, Pensacola 1 Box Score Jorge Alcala: 4.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 68.7% (46 of 67 pitches) HR: None Multi-hit games: None Sam Clay started this game with two shutout innings before Jorge Alcala took over and struggled as the primary pitcher, though only two of the five runs he gave up were earned. On the other hand, the only reason he had unearned runs was because he committed an error. Tom Hackimer did a great job in his two scoreless innings, striking out three batters. He’s give up just one earned run in 21 2/3 innings this season. Again here, not much to report on the offensive side. The Blue Wahoos combined for just five singles. Their only run scored on an Alex Kirilloff two-out RBI single. Kirilloff also had an outfield assist. Travis Blankenhorn was 1-for-4 and stole his third base of the season. MIRACLE MATTERS Daytona 4, Fort Myers 3 (11 innings) Box Score Tyler Watson: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 58.2% strikes (56 of 79 pitches) HR: Ryan Jeffers (4) Multi-hit games: Trevor Larnach (2-for-3, 2 2B, 2 BB), Ryan Jeffers (2-for-4, HR, BB) The Miracle trailed 3-0 in the top of the eighth inning, but a Lewin Diaz leadoff triple sparked a three-run rally capped by a Ryan Jeffers home run. Unfortunately, Fort Myers couldn’t scratch across another run. The pitching staff did an excellent job keeping Daytona off the board from the sixth through 10th innings, but finally ceded in the bottom of the 11th. The 2019 MLB Draft is right around the corner, and it was great to see the first two Twins picks of last year’s draft put together great performances. Trevor Larnach hit two doubles and drew a pair of walks. In addition to his fourth home run, Jeffers had a single and drew a walk. KERNELS NUGGETS Peoria 4, Cedar Rapids 1 Box Score Tyler Palm: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 66.3% strikes (61 of 92 pitches) HR: None Multi-hit games: Ben Rodriguez (2-for-4, 2B) My oh my were runs tough to come by Friday night. Tyler Palm had a very nice start, pitching into the seventh inning while only allowing two runs, but the bats were quiet. Five hits total and the only run came on an Andrew Bechtold sacrifice fly. He also doubled in this game. STARS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Tyler Palm, Cedar Rapids Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Ryan Jeffers, Fort Myers TOP PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed 1. Royce Lewis (FM): 0-for-5, 4 K 2. Alex Kirilloff (PNS): 1-for-4, RBI, 2 K, OF assist 4. Trevor Larnach (FM): 2-for-3, 2 2B, 2 BB, R, K 8. Lewis Thorpe (ROC): 4.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 63.6% (49 of 77 pitches) 11. Nick Gordon (ROC): 2-for-6, R 13. Ryan Jeffers (FM): 2-for-4, HR (4), BB, 2 RBI, R, K 14. Ben Rortvedt (PNS): 1-for-3, BB 16. Gilberto Celestino (CR): 0-for-4 18. LaMonte Wade (ROC): 0-for-4, BB, HBP 19. Jorge Alcala (PNS): 4.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 68.7% (46 of 67 pitches) 20. Jose Miranda (FM): 0-for-5 SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Pawtuckett. 6:05 pm CT (Randy Dobnak) Pensacola at Tennessee, 6:00 pm CT (Brusdar Graterol) Fort Myers at Daytona, 6:05 pm CT (Jordan Balazovic) Cedar Rapids vs. Peoria, 6:35 pm CT (Cole Sands) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the games.