Monday, May, 17th

Twins Talk

Twins 6 (23-14) Yankees 3

• Seriously what are the odds that the Twins would break their 12 game losing streak to the Yankees like this. It is so surreal that the way they break this jinx is a 5 run rally in the 8th inning against Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera two of the best relievers in all of the American League. After going into the eighth trailing the Yankees 3-1 and on the verge of being 0-13 the last two years and having to answer why you can't beat the Yankees this was the most unlikely rally that i have seen in quite some time and if nothing else maybe it gives them a belief that they can win in Yankee Stadium if hopefully their is a return trip in October. In the eighth inning Denard Span worked a long at bat into a base hit to left and Orlando Hudson forced him before Chamberlain walked Joe Mauer and struck out Justin Morneau. Michael Cuddyer then hit a line drive that all weekend long the Yankee defenders were catching but Mark Teixeira dropped the ball then kicked it to load the bases for Jim Thome. However, the Yankees countered with bringing the greatest closer of my lifetime in Mariano Rivera so the game is over right well not so fast. Jim Thome had a nice at bat and layed off a tough pitch to work out a walk to bring the Twins within 3-2. Up walked Jason Kubel who has really struggled so far this year, but that all changed when he took an inside cutter and deposited it in the right field stands for a grand slam and a 6-3 Twins lead. After Jon Rauch gave up base hits to the first 2 hitters in the 9th he struck out Derek Jeter, Brett Gardner, and Mark Teixeira to pull off the miraculous win for the Twins. Nick Blackburn got the start and kept the Twins in the game with another very good outing. Blackburn went 7 innings and gave up three runs on 9 hits along with a walk and 4 strikeouts to lower his era to 4.63 and improved his record to 4-3 on the year. Brian Duensing then came on in the eighth and got two outs along with a walk to lower his era to 1.84 on the year. Matt Guerrier followed by picking up a strikeout to get out of the inning to drop his era to 2.12. Jon Rauch pitched a scorless ninth to pick up his 10th save in 11 opportunities on the year and lowered his era to 1.80.

• The Twins could not do a whole lot against Yankee spot starter Sergio Mitre, but did good against their bullpen. The Twins put up 6 runs on 9 hits along with drawing five walks and leaving six guys on base. The Twins were led by Jason Kubel with that big homerun in the 8th inning. He went 1-4 at the plate with his 3rd homerun and drove in four to bring his season total up to 15. Orlando Hudson went 2-5 at the plate to bring his average up to .285 on the year. Denard Span went 1-5 at the plate along with his ninth stolen base of the year. Justin Morneau went 1-4 at the plate with his 9th homerun of the year and his 25th rbi. Michael Cuddyer, Jim Thome, Matt Tolbert, and Nick Punto each contributed hits in the winning cause for the Twins.

• Tonight, the Twins begin a short two game series with the Toronto Blue Jays as Kevin Slowey gets the start for the Twins vs Dana Eveland for the Blue Jays. Gametime is at 6:05 in Toronto.

Rochester Wrap

Rochester 4 (15-22) Louisville 3

• Yesterday must have been the day for comeback wins for the Twins in their organization as the Red Wings pulled out a 4-3 win over Lousville. The Red Wings trailed 3-0 going into the 7th inning, but a 4 run rally got the Red Wings into the winners circle. Jeff Manship got the start and he struggled, but worked out of some jams to keep the team in the game. Manship went 5.1 innings and gave up 2 earned runs on seven hits along with four walks and five strikeouts to lower his era to 3.93. The Twins need better performances out of Jeff Manship than this because he is the first in line if there is an injury to a pitcher and performances like this are not going to get it done. That is not to say that he is pitching bad because he isn't, but there is more expected out of Manship then he is showing right now and that is because he has the potential to be a middle of the rotation starter for the Twins not a so so pitcher in AAA. So hopefully he can find himself and pitch up to his capabilities. Tim Lahey then came on and had his best performance in quite a while pitching 1.2 shutout innings with two strikeouts to pick up his 2nd win of the year and lower his era to 7.76. Rob Delaney then came on and pitched a scoreless eighth inning on a hit along with two strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 3.68. Anthony Slama came on and pitched a perfect 9th inning to pick up his 8th save of the year and lowered his era to 1.85.

• It took until the 7th inning for the Red Wings offense to wake up from its slumber and in all scored 4 runs on 8 hits along with drawing four walks and leaving six guys on base. The more disappointing part was Trevor Plouffe committed two more errors and has 4 in the last 2 games and 8 on the season. That is something he is going to have to cleanup if he is going to make it up with the Twins. The Red Wings were led by who else offensively Dustin Martin went 2-4 at the plate to improve his average on the year to .339 a year after hitting .254 so we don't know how long this is going to last for Martin, but Red Wings fans will go along for the ride as long as it goes on. Danny Valencia went 1-4 at the plate to extend his hitting streak to a career high 20 games and is now hitting .305. Trevor Plouffe made up for his errors by going 1-2 at the plate with his 10th double of the year and his 20th rbi. Brian Dinkelman, Jose Morales, Jacque Jones, and Brock Peterson each contributed base hits in the winning cause. Jose Morales got his first start of the year behind the plate and allowed one stolen base.

• Tonight, the Red Wings finish off their series with Louisville as Matt Fox takes the ball for Rochester. Gametime is at 6:05 at Frontier Field in Rochester as they try to win their second consecutive game over the Bats of Louisville.

New Britain Business

Harrisburg 2 New Britain (7-28)

• After getting a rare win Saturday night the Rockcats returned to their former form by wasting a good pitching performance by David Bromberg and going down to Harrisburg by a score of 2-1. David Bromberg got the start and went 5 innings and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits along with four walks and two strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 3.58 and drop his record on the year to 1-2. The only thing that concerns me on a pretty solid outing was his four walks. After having control problems two years ago in Beloit, but seemed to right that ship last year in Fort Myers. However, this season he has walked a few more guys than I would like as he has walked 19 batters in just over 37 innings which is not terrible, but is a little bit much for a starting pitcher especially in the Twins organization that they stress throwing strikes. I know it is early and by the end of the season he could very easily have this issue cleaned up, but right now this should be something that he emphathizes when working in bullpen. Chris Province then came on and did very well pitching two shutout innings on one hit along with a strikeout and most importantly no walks to lower his era to 6.65. Joe Testa then came on and got an out to lower his era on the year to 6.75. Santos Arias then came out and got two outs along with a strikeout to lower his era on the year to 4.82.

• Just has been the problem all season the Rockcats could not score any runs as they were limited to 1 run on 7 hits along with drawing five walks and left 8 guys on base along with commiting 2 errors, one by Joe Benson, his 2nd of the year, and David Bromberg, his 1st of the year. The Rockcats were led by Joe Benson who went 1-3 at the plate with his 5th homerun of the year and his 9th rbi. Esterlin De Los Santos, Yangervis Solarte, Rene
  Tosoni, Tobey Gardenhire, Steve Singleton, Mark Dolenc, and Alex Soto each contributed a hit in the losing cause.

• The Rockcats have today off before beginning a series against Portland in Portland tommorrow night.

Fort Myers Minutes

Clearwater 9 Fort Myers 5 (16-20)

• The Miracle suffered a tough loss last night to Clearwater and it was not pretty by any sense of the word. Not only did they go through almost a two hour rain delay, but also committed 5 errors. Michael Tarsi got the start for the Miracle and was not very good in this one but was not helped out by his defense at all. Tarsi went 5 innings and gave up 7 runs although only 5 were earned on 6 hits along with three walks and two strikeouts to raise his era on the year to 4.61 and dropped his record to 2-4. Tarsi has really struggled in the month of May after getting off to a decent start in April. In April Tarsi had a 4.32 era in 5 starts, while in May his era has ballooned up to 5.06 in three May starts. Tarsi does not throw hard enough for him to not be on with his location so here is hoping that he can figure it out because once Stuifbergen gets to Fort Myers he is looking like the guy who will go to the bullpen if he doesn't improve. Tony Davis then came on and pitched two innings and gave up a run on a hit along with two walks to lower his era on the year to 4.05. Loek Van Mil continued his comeback from elbow issues to pitch one inning and give up a run on three hits along with a strikeout to raise his era to 4.50. Andrei Lobanov pitch a scoreless ninth on one hit along with two strikeouts to finish off the game.

• The Miracle had plenty of hits in this one, but were only able to score five runs even though they had 14 hits. They also drew a walk and left 8 guys on base, but they committed 5 errors a season high. The errors were committed by Chris Hermann, his 2nd of the year, Chris Cates, his 10th of the year, Dan Rohlfing, his fourth of the year, Paul Kelly, his 2nd of the year, and Nick Romero who committed his first of the year. The Miracle were led by Chris Hermann who went 3-4 at the plate with his 7th double of the year and 3 rbi's to bring his season total to 11. With the three hits Hermann is now hitting .262. Chris Cates went 3-5 at the plate to bring his average up to .202. Nathan Hanson went 2-4 at the plate with his fourth double of the year to bring his average on the year up to .250. Paul Kelly went 2-5 at the plate with his 4th rbi to bring his average up to .286. Brandon Roberts went 2-5 at the plate to bring his average on the year up to .333. Deibinson Romero and Evan Bigley each contributed a hit in the losing cause for the Miracle.

• Tonight, the Miracle continue their series with Clearwater as they send out Liam Hendriks who is making his second start for the Miracle. Gametime is at 6:05 in Clearwater as the Miracle tries to rebound from the loss.

Beloit Beat

Wisconsin 3 Beloit 1 (22-15)

• The Snappers lost a tough game to Wisconsin yesterday and an opportunity to sweep the series against the Rattlers by going down 3-1 yesterday. They wasted a great outing by Michael Tonkin who showed what he is capable of and that he should not be overlooked with guys like Hermsen, Salcedo, and Weller in his level. Tonkin pitched 7 shutout innings on only three hits and took a no hitter into the 6th inning along with 6 strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 2.45. Tonkin who many know is the brother in law of Twins designated hitter Jason Kubel, really showed everythign has he kept the hitters off balance and made it very hard to put the fat part of the bat on the ball. It will be interesting to see if he can build off of this start and continue pitching well for the Snappers. On the other end of the spectrum though is Ben Tootle who saw his struggles early in the season continue. Tootle gave up 3 runs on 3 hits along with a strikeout in one inning of work to raise his era on the year to 7.64 and lower his record to 0-1.

• The Snappers could not do much offensively in this one as they were only able to push one run across on 8 hits and did not draw a walk while leaving 7 guys on base while Brian Dozier committed his 5th error of the year. The Snappers were led offensively by Anderson Hidalgo who went 2-3 at the plate to bring his average up to .340 on the season. James Beresford went 1-4 at the plate along with his 4th stolen base to bring his average on the year to .235. Aaron Hicks went 1-4 at the plate to bring his average down to .272. Brian Dozier, Steve Liddle, Josmil Pinto, and Reggie Williams each contributed a hit in the losing cause for the Snappers.

• The Snappers have today off before having a doubleheader tommorrow versus Kane County in Beloit.