Wednesday, April, 14th

Twins Talk
6-2 tied for first place

• The Twins had yesterday off and will continue their series with Boston today as Kevin Slowey makes his second start of the season today against Red Sox hurler John Lacky with gametime at 12:10 at Target Field in Minneapolis

Rochester Wrap

Scranton 4 Rochester 3 (2-4)

• The Red Wings for the second consecutive day had a heartbreaking loss to the Barons as they took a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning only to see Scranton score two runs in the bottom of the eighth to lose the game 4-3. Anthony Swarzak got the start for Rochester and was much better than he was on opening day as he worked six innings and only gave up two runs on only five hits along with a walk and two strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 7.00 on the year. Jose Lugo then came on and did well in the 7th, but fell apart in the 8th inning. Lugo worked two innings and gave up two runs on four hits along with a walk and three strikeouts to raise his era on the young season to 4.15. His record dropped to 0-1 on the year.

• The Red Wings had another solid day offensively, but couldn't get many runs across because they left seven guys on base. Wilson Ramos led the offense going 2-4 at the plate to bring his average on the young season to .263. Trevor Plouffe had a good game going 1-4 at the plate with his first homerun of the year, a two run shot that gave the Twins a short lived 3-2 lead in the 8th inning. He also drove in his fifth and sixth runs of the year and brought his average up to .280 on the young season. Erik Lis, Matt Tolbert, Luke Hughes, Jacque Jones, and Danny Valencia each contributed a hit in the game. Valencia also drove in his second run of the year for the Red Wings.

• Tonight, the Red Wings begin a series with Lehigh Valley as Ryan Mullins is scheduled to get the start tonight for Rochester. Gametime is at 6:05 in Lehigh Valley.

New Britian Business

Portland 8 New Britain 0 (0-5)

• The Rockcats continued their struggles in the young season with yet another lopsided loss this time to Portland by a score of 8-0. The game started off so well as David Bromberg made his season debut and was very good in this one. Bromberg went the first five innings without giving up a run on only three hits along with two walks and two strikeouts. It was a very encouraging start for Bromberg who has really jumped up the prospect charts the last year plus who some thought might struggle with the new level of competion and we shall see,, but it was a good start to the season for Bromberg. Joe Testa then came on for the Rockcats and it did not go so well for him. Testa went one inning and gave up five runs on four hits to raise his era on the year to 16.88 on the year. Steve Hirschfeld then came on and did not fare very well either. Hirschfeld worked 1.2 innings and gave up three runs on three hits along with a walk to raise his era to 4.91. Santos Arias pitched a scoreless inning for relief along with a walk.

• Even though the relief pitching let the Rockcats down in this one it would not have mattered as New Britain was only able to muster six hits in this one and could not push a run across. Danny Lehman led the hitting going 2-4 at the plate to bring his average on the year to .357. Mark Dolenc also went 2-4 at the plate to raise his average to .286 on the year. Esterlin De Los Santos added his first hit of the year a double to raise his average to a unsightly .067. Chris Parmelee also added a single along with Ben Revere and Joe Benson each stealing their second bases of the year.

• This Morning the Rockcats finish their series off with Portland as they play a early afternoon game. Carlos Gutierrez gets the start for the Rockcats with gametime being at 10:35am today in New Britain.

Fort Myers Minutes

Fort Myers 2 (1-4) Port Charlotte 0

• The Miracle finally got in the winning column after losing the first four games of the year. The reason they were able to get the win was the pitching of uberprospect Kyle Gibson who was trying to make people forget about his less than stellar start on opening day. In this one Gibson showed everything that has the Twins so excited about. Gibson worked 6 innings and gave up no runs on only 4 hits along with 6 strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 2.79. That is the kind of start that Twins fans will be hoping to see out of Gibson next season when he is possibly pitching for the Twins. Veteran Ron Mahey then came on as he tries to round into shape and pitched a perfect 7th inning to lower his era with the Miracle to 1.93. Billy Bulluck then came on and blew away Charlotte in two shutout innings to pick up his first save as a member of the Miracle. Bulluck pitched two perfect innings along with four strikeouts in this one.

• It was a good thing that the pitching staff took care of business in this one as the hitters did not help much as they only collected five hits, but were able to push two of those hitters across for runs. The Miracle were led offensively by Yangervis Solarte who went 2-3 at the plate and drove in both runs to bring his rbi total up to two and collected his first double of the year to bring his average up to .545 on the young season. Drew Thompson also went 2-3 at the plate to bring his average up to .333. Nick Romero also added a single for the Miracle.

• Tonight, the Miracle continue their series with Port Charlotte as Michael Tarsi is scheduled to pitch for the Miracle with gametime at 6:00 in Port Charlotte.

Beloit Beat

Peoria 1 Beloit 0 (2-3)

• The Snappers wasted another great pitching performance from Liam Hendriks as they went down last night to Peoria by a score of 1-0. Liam Hendriks got the start and pitched 6 shutout innings on only one hit along with a walk and five strikeouts. Hendricks has not allowed a run in 11 innings so far this season. If he continues to pitch like this he won't be in Beloit for very long as he appears ready for a promotion, but we shall see as it is only two starts in. Kane Holbrooks then came on and gave up an unearned run along with three hits in two innings of work to take the loss. Matthew Tone then came on and pitched a scoreless inning of relief on two hits along with three strikeouts for the Snappers.

• The Snappers season long hitting slump continued in this one as they were only able to five hits in this one and waste the great pitching performance from Hendriks. Steve Liddle led the offense going 2-4 at the plate to raise his average on the year to .318. Brian Dozier, Anderson Hidalgo, and James Beresford each contributed a single for the Snappers in this one. However, that was not enough to get the job done for the Snappers in this one as they continue to struggle with the bats.

• Tonight, the Snappers start a series with Kane County as Dan Osterbrock is scheduled to pitch for the Snappers. Gametime is at 6pm in Kane County.

• I hope everyone heard the second edition of the Twins Minor League Weekly podcast as we had Fort Myers catcher Dan Rohlfing on the show. Seth Stohs and I talked about all the affiliates and what we expected out of everyone in the organization. If you missed it you can download it at http://blogtalkradio.com/twinsminorleagueweekly and make sure you tune in next Tuesday night for another edition of the Twins Minor League Weekly podcast with your hosts Travis Aune and Seth Stohs.