Saturday, May, 15th

Twins Talk
New York Yankees 8 Twins 4 (22-13)

• The Twins came on the short end of a tough 8-4 loss last night to the Yankees. What made it tougher was the usually effective Matt Guerrier gave up a grand slam to Alex Rodriguez that turned a Twins 4-3 lead into a Yankee 7-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. I know everyone is going to throw Gardy and Matt Guerrier under the bus for it not working out, but it was the right decision to make. I realize that A-Rod going into the at bat was 4-6 with 3 homeruns lifetime against Guerrier, but at the end of the day Guerrier is the best set up person in the bullpen. That is the kind of at bat that the Twins have Guerrier for it just so happened that A-Rod won the battle. If that situation happened 100 times I would bring in Guerrier 100 times and 90 percent of the time I really feel that Guerrier will get the job done. It is not like the Twins have a lot of choices right now with Pat Neshek on the disabled list and Jesse Crain not pitching well right now. My feelings are if you are going to get beat get beat with your best and that is Matt Guerrier so yes I am disappointed that it did not work out, but I can live with it because I believe that Gardy made the right call it just did not work out. Scott Baker got the start for the Twins and was better than his line would indicate. If I was manager I would have taken Baker out of 6 innings and not sent him out there for the 7th inning. I know that the two hits he gave up were kind of lucky, but I think he was spent after the 6th inning. In all Baker went 6+ innings and gave up 5 runs on 10 hits along with a walk and a season high 9 strikeouts to raise his era to 4.93 and lowered his record to 4-3. Brian Duensing then came on with runners on 2nd and 3rd and no out and got the first guy to pop up before intentionally walking Mark Teixeira to raise his era to 1.93. Matt Guerrier then came on and gave up the grand slam and got the two outs that followed to raise his era to 2.16. Jose Mijares came back and gave up a run on two hits to raise his era to 8.10 on the year. Alex Burnett finished the game going 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit along with a strikeout to lower his era on the year to 3.63.

• The Twins had opportunities against Yankees starter AJ Burnett especially in the early innings and could not knock him out. The Twins scored 4 runs on 9 hits along with drawing five walks including a bases loaded walk by Nick Punto along with leaving eight guys on base in this one. The Twins were led by guess who Joe Mauer who went 3-4 at the plate with his second homerun of the year and a base hit in the seventh inning that tied the game at 3 to bring his average up to .364 and his rbi total up to 16 with his 2 rbi's. Justin Morneau went 2-4 at the plate with his 9th double of the year that put the Twins up 4-3 in the 7th inning and his 24th rbi to bring his average up to .361. Jason Kubel came out of his slump a little bit going 2-4 at the plate to bring his average up to .224. Denard Span and Orlando Hudson each contributed a hit in the losing cause for the Twins in this game against the Yankees.

• Today, the Twins send ace Francisco Liriano to the mound against Andy Pettite in a afternoon mantinee. Gametime is at 12:07 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx as the Twins try to even the series.

Rochester Wrap

Rochester 13 (14-21) Louisville 4

• The Red Wings had an offensive outpouring against uber prospect Aroldis Chapman of Louisville as they romped to a 13-4 win last night at Frontier Field. Ryan Mullins got the start for Rochester and was alright once again. He was not great as he never is, but he kept the team in the game like he always does and let the offense get him some runs. Mullins went 6.2 innings and gave up 3 earned runs on nine hits along with a walk and four strikeouts to lower his era to 4.50 and improve his record to 3-2 on the year. You could make a case for the fact that Mullins has been the most consistant pitcher as they have had quite a bit of turnover with Mullins being a constant in the lineup and giving them a chance to win every time out there. Kyle Waldrop continued his good start of the season pitching the last 2.1 innings on only one hit along with two strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 1.73. Waldrop has been the biggest surprise for me in the whole organization as he far exceeded what I felt he was capable of.

• It may be a coincidence with the arrival of Wilson Ramos and Jose Morales to the lineup for the Red Wings to have their most explosive offensive game of the season. The Red Wings in this one scored a season high 13 runs on a season high 20 hits along with drawing 6 walks to leave 10 guys on base. Dustin Martin committed an error, his 4th of the year, in the winning cause. Jose Morales knows how to make an entrance after missing the first 6 weeks of the year with wrist surgery, he went 5-5 at the plate with his first double and first rbi. Jason Repko continued his hot start to the season going 4-4 at the plate with his fourth double of the year and drove in four runs to bring his season total up to 12 and his average up to .320. Danny Valencia continued his hot May going 3-5 at the plate with his 11th double and his 17th rbi of the year to bring his average up to .295. Valencia got off to a slow start, but in May he has been crushing the ball as his .364 May average would attest to compared to his .256 April average. Just look at his OPS in April he had a .652 OPS and in May it has jumped to .846. If he keeps this up he will force his way up to Minnesota and into the Twins lineup. Jacque Jones had a good game going 2-4 at the plate with his sixth double and his sixth and seventh rbi's to bring his average up to .281. Brock Peterson went 2-4 at the plate to bring his average up to .228. Not to be outdone Red Wings top hitter Dustin Martin went 2-5 at the plate with his seventh double and drove in two runs to bring his season total up to 30 and his average up to .330. Trevor Plouffe went 1-5 at the plate with his third homerun and drove in three runs to bring his total up to 18. Wilson Ramos made his return to Rochester by going 1-5 with his second double of the year.

• Tonight, the Red Wings continue their series with Louisville as Glen Perkins gets the start for Rochester as he tries to get on track as he brings in his 11.12 era into this start. Gametime is at 6:05 at Frontier Field in Rochester.

New Britain Business

Harrisburg 9 New Britain 3 (6-27)

• The Rockcats saw their losing streak hit seven games with a 9-3 loss last night to Harrisburg as when you think it can't get any worse for New Britain it obviously does as they have to be close to be hitting rock bottom as they try to get back to the .500 level before the end of the year. Mike Mccardell got the start for the Rockcats and was not very good in this one. Mccardell only lasted 3.2 innings in this one and gave up six runs on eight hits although only 4 of them were earned thanks in part with two Rockcat errors. Mccardell also walked two batters while striking out one to raise his era on the year to 4.70 and dropped his record to 0-4. Michael Allen then came on and pitched two innings and gave up two runs on three hits along with a walk and two strikeouts to raise his era on the year to 2.08. Santos Arias then came on and pitched 1.1 scoreless innings on two hits along with a walk and two strikeouts to lower his era to 5.00. Arias has to be the biggest disappointement on the entire New Britain team and possibly in the whole organization as much was expected of him and his 0-5 record and 5 era is not what most people were expecting out of Arias. Matt Williams mopped up pitching an inning and giving up one run on one hit along with a walk and two strikeouts to raise his era up to 8.10 as Williams has had a rough start to AA hitting.

• The Rockcats in this game did not do enough offensively with the pitching doing as poor as they did. The Rockcats scored 3 runs on 7 hits along with drawing only one walk and leaving six guys on base. To make matters worse New Britain committed two errors which led to two Harrisburg runs. Mike Mccardell committed his first error and Steve Singleton committed his 5th. The Rockcats were led by Ben Revere who went 3-4 at the plate with his eighth rbi of the year to bring his average up to .292. Mark Dolenc went 1-4 at the plate with his first triple of the year. Steve Singleton, Joe Benson, and Chris Parmelee each contributed hits in the losing cause for the Rockcats.

• Tonight, the Rockcats continue their series with Harrisburg as the Rockcats will see the much balleyood AA debut of Kyle Gibson. Gametime is at 6:05 in Harrisburg as the Rockcats try to stop their seven game losing streak in this one.

Fort Myers Minutes

Bradenton 1 Fort Myers 0 (15-19)

• The Miracle suffered a hard fought and tough loss to take 1-0 decision to first place Bradenton. The Miracle got an awesome performance by staff ace Bruce Pugh in this one, but the offense could not get any runs for him. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other team because games like this are fun to watch it just so happened that the Miracle came on the wrong end of this one as between the two teams their were only 6 hits. Bruce Pugh got the start and he was awesome throwing his best outing of the year and after getting off to a rough start has really taken the bull by the horns and is the ace of this staff along with Liam Hendriks. Pugh went 7 strong innings in this one without giving up only one hit and no runs along with one walk and an impressive 10 strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 3.40. Pugh has been awesome as of late as in his last 26 innings of work he has only given up 4 runs a 1.38 era which spans 4 starts. More impressive than that in those 4 starts he has walked six batters which is very good while striking out 36 batters. I admit that I was not real high on Pugh when the season started, but he has really caught my eye and am curious to see if he can keep it going as the talent is there as he was a 19th round pick in the 2008 draft out of a small school. To look at the improvement of Pugh in April he was 1-3 with a 4.79 in four starts, while in May he is 1-1 with a 1.89 era in 3 May starts. Loek Van Mil then came on and took the loss giving up one run on a hit along with a strikeout to raise his era to 3.00 in his one inning of work.

• In pitching duels like this you are not going to get many hits and the Miracle really didn't as they mustered only four hits in this one along with drawing one walk and committing an error by Paul Kelly, his first of the year, in this one while leaving four guys on base so they did not have many chances and when they did they squandered them. The Miracle were led by Brandon Roberts who went 1-4 at the plate with his sixth stolen base of the year. Chris Hermann, Nathan Hanson, and Dan Rohlfing each contributed base hits in the losing cause for the Miracle.

• Tonight, the Miracle continue their series with Bradenton as Blake Martin makes his first start of the year for Fort Myers. Gametime is at 6:05pm in Bradenton as the Miracle try to end their 2 game losing streak.

Beloit Beat

Beloit 5 (20-14) Wisconsin 3

Beloit 2 (21-14) Wisconsin 1

• The Snappers regained a piece of first place with a doubleheader sweep of Wisconsin in Appelton by scores of 5-3 and 2-1. In game 1 Brad Stillings got the start and was good going 5+ innings and giving up two earned runs on nine hits along with a walk and six strikeouts to lower his era to 5.04 and improved his record to 2-2. With Liam Hendriks gone and Tom Stuifbergen on the disabled list Stillings has to pick it up because you don't know what you are going to get from the young starters in Hermsen and Tonkin so it was good that he had a good start in this one. Dakota Watts then came on and got two outs one via the strikeout to lower his era on the year to 2.86. Nelson Prada then brought in closer Kane Holbrooks and he did a great job going 1.1 scoreless innings to pick up his 3rd save on only one hit along with 3 strikeouts to lower his era on the year to 0.87. What is more impressive is his strikeout/walk rate. In 20.2 innings Holbrooks has only walked 3 batters while striking out an impressive 27 batters. In game 2 BJ Hermsen made his Beloit debut and was very good in this one. Hermsen went five innings and gave up a run on four hits along with two strikeouts and two walks. Hermsen's upside is so high that it will be interesting to see how he does in Beloit as he is only 20 years old. Jhon Garcia then came on and pitched 2 shutout innings on no hits along with a walk and a strikeout. Eliecer Cardenas then came on and pitched the last 3 innings to pick up his second win of the year on three hits along with two walks and four strikeouts.

• Offensively in game 1 the Snappers scored 5 runs on 9 hits along with drawing one walk and leaving six guys on base while Steve Liddle committed his second error of the year in this one. The Snappers were led by Danny Rams who went 2-3 at the plate with his first homerun of the year and his 4th and 5th rbi's to bring his average up to .227. Brian Dozier also went 2-3 at the plate with his fifth double of the year to bring his average up to .283 on the year. Anderson Hidalgo went 1-2 at the plate with his ninth double to bring his average up to .321. Aaron Hicks, James Beresford, Steve Liddle, and Angel Morales each contributed a hit in the winning cause for the Snappers. In game 2 their was not much offense as the Snappers only mustered 2 runs on 7 hits along with drawing three walks and leaving four guys on base and committing an error by BJ Hermsen, his first of the year, in the winning cause. The Snappers were led by Josmil Pinto who went 2-4 with his second homerun of the year and his sixth double along with his 11th and 12th rbi's to bring his average up to .239. Anderson Hidalgo went 2-4 at the plate also to bring his average on the year to .330. James Beresford, Steve Liddle, and Reggie Williams each contributed a hit in the winning cause for the Snappers.

• Today, the Snappers continue their series with Wisconsin as Edgar Ibarra gets the start for Beloit. Gametime is at 1:05 in Appleton.