Twins Talk
- The Twins had yesterday off and will begin a big seven game roadtrip with a ever interesting series in the Bronx against the Yankees. The Twins went 0-10 against the Bronx Bombers last year and will want to prove that this year the Twins have a better team and can beat the Yankees. Twins ace Francisco Liriano gets the start for the Twins and will face AJ Burnett for the Yankees with gametime at 6:05 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
Rochester Wrap
Indianapolis 8 Rochester 3 (13-21)
- The Red Wings came on the shortend of a tough 8-3 loss to Indianapolis to drop their record on the year to 13-21. Once again the Red Wings got bad pitching and could not hit in this one to fall 6 games out of first. Deolis Guerra made his first AAA start in this one and was so so. Guerra only laster 4+ innings and gave up two earned runs on eight hits along with a walk and three strikeouts. On paper it does not look that bad as he only gave up two earned runs. The problem was he was only able to make it 4+ innings and that is not going to be good enough. Also the 8 hits that he allowed are a few to many, but I think it was a good building block start. The bottom line is Deolis Guerra is only 21 years old and won't turn 22 until next April so he is very young for AAA. He could spend three years in AAA and still be young for the major leagues. I think people need to keep that in mind when they are judging his numbers. I really think the future is bright for Guerra and wouldn't surprise me to see him in a Twins uniform sometime in 2011. Jose Lugo then came on and went one inning and gave up one run on no hits along with two walks to raise his era to 8.14. Tim Lahey then came on and did what he usually does and that is give up runs. Lahey went one inning and gave up two runs on three hits along with a walk and a strikeout to raise his era up to 8.28. At 28 years old and still struggling in AAA you have to wonder how many more chances that the Twins will give him. Rob Delaney then came on and had his first rough outing in quite a while as he worked one inning and gave up two runs on three hits including a homerun along with a strikeout to raise his era to 3.86. Anthony Slama worked a perfect 8th inning to lower his era on the year to 2.01.
- Offensively, the Red Wings were only able to put up three runs on seven hits along with taking two walks and leaving nine guys on base. Dustin Martin like usual led the offense for the Red Wings going 2-4 at the plate with his 28th rbi to bring his average up to .327 on the season. Brian Dinkelman went 1-4 at the plate with his 8th double of the year. Danny Valencia went 1-4 with his 10th double of the year. Jason Repko, Trevor Plouffe, and Matt Macri each contributed a hit in the losing cause for the Red Wings in this game.
- The Red Wings tonight begin a homestand with Louisville as Ryan Mullins gets the start for Rochester with first pitch at 6:05 at Frontier Field in Rochester.
New Britain Business
Harrisburg 3 New Britain 1 (6-26)
- The Rockcats have seen their miserable start to the season careen out of control as they are now 20 games under .500. This is turning out to be a historically bad season in New Britain. It is all the more shocking with quite a bit of the Twins top prospects in New Britain. Last night they saw a all too often occurance where their starter had a good outing thwarted thanks to awful hitting. Last night the person that was the victim was Tyler Robertson who had a very good start, but took the loss to drop his record on the year to 0-2. Robertson went 5.2 innings and gave up two runs on seven hits along with two walks and five strikeouts to lower his era to 3.86. Chris Province then came on and pitched the last 2.1 innings and gave up a run on a hit along with a walk to bring his era down to 7.32 on the year.
- Offensively, the Rockcats could only muster a run on five hits along with drawing one walk along leaving four guys on base and committing an error by Yancarlos Ortiz, his second of the year. The Rockcats were led by Joe Benson who went 2-3 at the plate wiht his first triple of the year to bring his average up to .208. After getting off to a really bad start offensively Benson has really gotten it going as of late and his tools are awesome and by seasons end I expect him to put up the numbers that we all expected him at the start of the season. Yangervis Solarte made his AA debut by going 1-3 at the plate with his first double. Ben Revere went 1-4 at the plate with his seventh rbi of the year. Steve Singleton also added a base hit in the losing cause for the Rockcats.
- Tonight, the Rockcats continue their series with Harrisburg as Mike Mccardell gets the start for New Britain. Gametime is at 6pm in Harrisburg.
Fort Myers Minutes
Tampa 6 Fort Myers 2 (15-18)
- The Miracle had their two game winning streak come to an end with a 6-2 loss to Tampa last night. The Miracle have been playing some really good ball lately to get back in the FSL South division race with a roster that is less than talented then some of their other division champion rosters. In this one Dan Osterbrock got the start and struggled in this one. Osterbrock went 5.1 innings and gave up 6 runs on 11 hits along with 6 strikeouts to raise his era to 5.56 on the year. Osterbrock is not blessed with a very good fastball so he relies on his breaking balls to trick the other team and when his off speed pitches are not on he will get drilled and in this one that is exactly what happened as he dropped his record to 0-2. Andrei Lobanov made his Miracle debut and pitched 1.2 shutout innings on two hits along with two strikeouts. Steve Blevins then came on and made his FSL debut as he pitched a perfect 8th inning.
- Offensively, the Miracle did not do much offensively as they only mustered two runs on six hits along with drawing one walk and leaving four guys on base in this one as they also commited two errors, Drew Thompson commited his ninth and Dan Rohlfing committed his third in this one. The Miracle were led by Brandon Roberts who went 1-4 with his second double and his eighth rbi. Dan Rohlfing went 1-4 at the plate with his 6th double. Paul Kelly, Chris Cates, Drew Thompson, and Michael Harrington each contibuted hits in the losing cause for the Miracle.
- Tonight, the Miracle begin a series with first place Bradenton as Bruce Pugh gets the start for Fort Myers. Gametime is at 6pm in Bradenton.
Beloit Beat
Wisconsin 3 Beloit 0 (19-14)
- The Snappers suffered a hard fought loss to Wisconsin last night by a score of 3-0 and waste a good pitching performance by Miguel Munoz. Munoz got the start and went 5.2 innings and gave up two earned runs on eight hits along wtih two walks and five strikeouts to lower his era to 3.89 and dropped his record to 0-2 on the year. Munoz has been one of the most consistant pitchers on the Snappers with his 3.89 era, but has nothing to show for it except two losses. Matt Tone then came on and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings on two hits along with four strikeouts to lower his era to 3.60 on the year. Matt Tone, a 14th round draft pick in 2009, has been everything that the Twins were expecting out of him as he has 25 strikeouts in 20 innings of work. If he can get the walk total down he can be a very big piece to the puzzle going forward as he has a nice fastball and good breaking pitches so he is worth keeping an eye on.
- Offensively, the Snappers did nothing as they were shutout on only five hits along with drawing five walks and leaving 11 guys on base and committing three errors, by Tobias Streich,his 3rd, Miguel Munoz,his 1st, and Brian Dozier, his 4th. The Snappers were led offensively by James Beresford who continued his hot streak by going 3-4 at the plate to bring his average up to .245. Beresford in his last 10 games is hitting .406 along with hitting .378 in the month of May after hitting .164 in April. Steve Liddle went 1-2 at the plate with his fifth double of the year along with drawing two walks. Angel Morales went 1-3 with his 7th double of the year. Aaron Hicks went 0-4 with a walk and three strikeouts to lower his average to .282 and drop his average in May to .256 after hitting .299 in April. Hicks has been very streaky this season and we should hope that he develops a little more consistancy going forward and striking out a little less. Last year he had 55 strikeouts in 251 at bats for a rate of one strikeout every 4.6 at bats which is a little high but not terrible. This year so far Hicks has struck out 33 times in 110 at bats an alarming 3.3 at bats. Meaning he is striking out one more time a game this year compared to last year. However, to counteract that last year he walked 40 times in 251 at bats a rate of 6.3 at bats. This year Hicks has walked 24 times in 110 at bats a rate of 4.6 at bats. What does all this mean on one hand you want him to strikeout less, but at the same time if he keeps this walk rate up he will be ok as his .407 on base percentage this year will attest to.
- Tonight, the Snappers have a double header with Wisconsin as Brad Stillings gets the start in game 1. New Snapper BJ Hermsen gets his first Snapper appearance as he gets the start in game 2. Game 1 gametime is at 5:05 with game 2 about a half an hour later in Appleton.
