June 25, 2007

Monday June 25, 2007

Twins win again.


The Minnesota Twins won their 2nd game in a row without Justin Morneau. They defeated the Florida Marlins, 7-4. Johan Santana had another strong performance to lower his ERA to 2.83. He gave up 2 runs (1 earned) in 6 innings. He also collected 8 strikeouts along with way. Over his last 4 starts, he has been amazing. Over the stretch he is 2-1 with a 1.29 ERA and 23 strikeouts. Besides pitching a great game, he even chipped in on offense for his 2nd game in a row. He went 1-3 with an RBI triple and he also got a run across (but not an RBI) on a fielder’s choice. He finished interleague play going 2-7 with a double, a triple, 2 runs, and 1 RBI.

Joe Mauer hit well for the 2nd straight game while hitting in the 3rd spot in the order again on Sunday afternoon. He went 2-4 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI’s. Hopefully this power surge by Joe can keep going for the rest of the season. Well, I can hope can’t I? Jason Bartlett also chipped in 2 RBI’s while hitting in the leadoff spot for Luis Castillo, who was given the day off to rest a sore leg. Hunter went hitless after going 6-10 in the previous two games. Michael Cuddyer went 1-3 before being ejected (along with Ron Gardenhire) for arguing balls and strikes in the 4th inning. He was replaced by Lew Ford who went 0-2 in the cleanup spot. Jason Kubel also continued to swing a nice bat going 1-3 and finishing the series going 5-8 with 2 RBI’s and 4 runs scored. Nick Punto got 2 more runs scored to bring his series total to 4.


  • The next game is against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday evening at the Metrodome. Kevin Slowey (2-0, 4.43) will face Roy Halladay in the first game. Kevin Slowey has never faced the Blue Jays. Halladay, on the other hand, is 5-0 with a 2.20 ERA in 9 games (7 started) against the Twins. Halladay is also coming off of 3 straight wins in a row. In that stretch he’s had an ERA of 2.44 and has struck out 12. Slowey is coming off of 8 days rest. He’ll need another decent start to keep the Twins in the game against the high-powered offense of the Blue Jays.
  • Justin Morneau will spend his 3rd straight night in a Miami hospital on Sunday night. The Twins were hoping he’d be able to fly back with the club after their Sunday afternoon game against the Marlins’, but the according to GM Terry Ryan, “they didn’t want to have any complications when he gets on an airplane.” The Twins are hoping he’ll be able to fly home on Monday and are also hopefully to have him in the lineup by next weekend. But as of right now, we’ll take everything by ear.


Twins Minor League Affiliates


AAA Rochester Red Wings
Rochester lost to Charlotte, 2-5.
The Red Wings couldn’t keep their momentum after winning both games on Saturday. Jason Miller gave up 3 runs in 5 innings and got his 2nd loss of the season. Doug Deeds continued his offensive surge going 1-4 with a solo home run. Brian Buscher reached base 4 times getting 2 singles and 2 walks. Garrett Jones drove in the other run for the Red Wings.

AA New Britain Rock Cats
New Britain lost to Connecticut, 4-5.
The Rock Cats came back to score 2 runs in the 9th inning, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Connecticut Defenders. Jesse Floyd pitched and gave up 4 runs (3 earned) in 6 innings. Trevor Plouffe continued hitting a hot bat going 2-5 with an RBI triple and a 2 RBI single in the top of the 9th inning. Over his last 10 games, he is hitting .318 with 1 HR and 7 RBI’s. 3rd Baseman, Matt Moses, also got 2 hits and an RBI.

High-A Ft. Myers Miracle
Ft. Myers lost to Palm Beach, 4-5 in 10 innings.
The Miracle couldn’t win after a strong performance by Yohan Pino. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 run (not earned) and struck out 6. Recently promoted Danny Valencia & Chris Woodward combined to go 0-9. Juan Portes reached base 4 out of 5 times with 1 hit and 3 walks. His one hit was a solo home run (his 3rd of the season). Eddie Morlan came on to pitch 2 innings of relief. He gave up a game-tying 2 run home run in the top of the 9th. It was Morlan’s 4th blown save of the season. Adam Hawes gave up the game winning run on a sac-fly in the bottom of the 10th.

A Beloit Snappers
Beloit lost to Peoria, 9-11.
The Snappers offense supplied enough runs, but unfortunately, the so did the Chiefs. Brian Kirwan gave up 6 runs in only 3 innings (but only 4 of them were earned). The Snappers got 3 RBI’s from both Allan de San Miguel & Dan Berg. Garrett Olson had a 2 run double for his only hit of the afternoon. Chris Parmelee & Wilson Ramos both chipped in with 2 hits each.

Rookie E-Town Twins
Elizabethton beat Greeneville, 2-1.
The E-Town Twins looked like they were down 1-0 until Rene Leveret came up big in the 7th inning with an RBI double. Then with the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 8th, Starling De Los Santos gave the Twins a 2-1 lead. Michael Allen, was dealing going 5 innings and striking out 7 guys and allowed 1 unearned run. Brad Tippert received the win when he pitched a scoreless 8th inning. Anthony Slama came in to pitch a scoreless 9th inning for his 2nd save in as many chances.

Rookie GCL Twins
Off Day.

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