Saturday 6/23

Twins lose a heart breaker...

Minnesota came out strong, scoring 2 runs in the top of the first. Justin Morneau & Torii Hunter got back-to-back run scoring hits to both collect their 57th RBI's. But Boof Bonser and the Twins quickly gave back one of the runs in the bottom of the first on a double by Miguel Cabrera which scored centerfielder Alfredo Amezaga. In the bottom of the 3rd, the Twins trailed after "the boofer" gave up a 2-run home run to second baseman, Dan Uggla. The Twins trailed until the 8th inning when Jason Kubel pinched hit for 3rd baseman Jeff Cirillo. Justin Morneau previously was walked and standing on 1st. Then Jason Kubel hits a beautiful double down the left field line. Left Fielder, Josh Willingham, bobbled the ball which made Justin Morneau to slow up at 3rd before taking off again. The ball came as Justin lowered his shoulder into catcher Miguel Olivo's body. The ball came loose, and both Morneau & Kubel both scored. But, the play came at a cost, Justin Morneau had trouble getting to his feet. He was then taken out of the game and and later reportedly taken to the hospital on a stretcher after he was still out of breath, and caughing up blood. There is good news though, the x-rays are negative, and Justin reportedly has a small bruise on his lung which will most likely keep him out of the rest of this series, but likely won't require him to spend any time on the disabled list. The Twins may consider recalling 1B/OF, Garrett Jones from AAA Rochester, if the 2006 AL-MVP needs to miss any signifacant amount of games. After the Twins tied the game in the top of the 8th, Juan Rincon began his 2nd inning of work. He got Amezaga and Uggla out on a fly out and a grounder, but then threw a beach ball to short stop Hanley Ramirez, who hit the ball over the fence in deep left center, to put the Marlins up 5-4. Kelly Gregg came in the top of the 9th and got his 14th save, setting down Jason Bartlett, Mike Redmond, & Joe Mauer (Luis Castillo was walked).

The Twins will send Carlos Silva (4-8, 4.20) to the mound on Saturday evening, to hopefully stop the bleeding against the Marlins (no relation) Josh Johnson (0-1, 9.82).

Twins Minor League Affiliates:

AAA Rochester Red Wings
Rochester beat the Charlotte Knights (the White Sox's affiliate) 6-0 with a strong outing from 24 year old south paw, Brian Duensing. Duensing went 7 strong innings for the complete game giving up 5 hits and striking out 3 while lowering his ERA to 2.10. Denard Span went 1-3 with 2 RBI and his first home run in AAA. Matt Tolbert & Tommy Watkins both went 2-4 with a double and a run scored.

AA New Britain Rock Cats
New Britain lost a hard game to the Connecticut Defenders (the Giant's affiliate), 7-8. Tristan Crawford let in 7 runs (4 earned) in the losing effort. Recently demoted, Matthew Moses went 1-4 with an RBI double in his first game in a Rock Cats uniform (this season). Trevor Plouffe went 2-5, raising his avg. to .279. In his last 10 games, the former first round draft pick is 15-45 (.333) with 2 HR's and 4 RBI's. First Baseman, Brock Peterson went 2-4 with a three-run HR (his 9th HR, and 30th RBI), in the losing effort.

High-A Fort Myers Miracle
Fort Myers won in dramatic fashion as they beat the Sarasota Red's (the Red's affiliate). Oswaldo Sosa pitched a strong game going 6 innings while giving up 1 earned run on 2 hits and striking out 5. In the 8th inning, things got ugly for the Miracle when shortstop Matthew Betsill and struggling 1st baseman Whit Robbins both made errors making all 4 runs the Red's scored, unearned for Angel Garcia. With the score 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th, pinch hitter Luis Ugueto doubles to lead off the inning. Steven Tolleson reaches 1st on a sacrafice bunt after an error by the pitcher, Ugueto scores making it a tied ballgame. Tolleson reaches 3rd after a a passed ball and a fielders choice. Later, centerfielder Edward Ovalle hits a single to center, scoring Tolleson from 3rd. What a game. Ft. Myers' offense looks pretty dreadful thus far, but help is on the way. Today the organization announced that infielders Brian Dinkleman, Danny Valencia & Johnny Woodward have all been promoted from Beloit and should provide an instant spark to the Miracle's lineup. 2nd baseman, Brian Dinkleman was hitting .283 with 7 HR's and 21 RBI's with 48 runs (most in Midwest League). 3rd baseman, Danny Valencia was hitting .302 with 11 HR's and 35 RBI's while leading the snappers with 73 hits in 66 games for Beloit. And 1st baseman, Johnny Woodward was hitting .276 with 10 HR's and 31 RBI's with a team leading OBP of .398.

Single-A Beloit Snappers
Beloit lost a poorly played game 3-0 to the Peoria Chiefs (the Cub's affiliate). Beloit's 19 year old righty, Alex Burnett, gave up 3 runs on 6 hits in 6.1 innings of work. Not that bad right? Well, it is when the Snapper's offense only gets 4 sinlges (all by different players). Talk about dreadful. The players to get hits were: RF Chris Parmelee, CF Joe Benson, 2B Steve Singleton, and DH Wilson Ramos. 1st Baseman Dan Berg went 0-4 with 3 K's. Singleton got his 14th error of the season.

Rookie Elizabethton Twins
No games played.

Rookie Gulf Coast League Twins
The Twins won 4-0 against the GCL Red Sox (the Red Sox affiliate). Perhaps the biggest news from this game is the arrival of the Twins 2007 1st Round pick, Ben Revere. He started in CF and hit in the 3rd spot of the order in his first game as a Twin. He went 1-4 with a triple an RBI and a run scored. Definitely a good first impression for him. 2 others also had great first impressions as well. Starter (and 6th round pick), Michael McCardell went 4 innings of 1 hit ball and struck out 5. Daniel Berlind came in relief to pitch 4 innings giving up 2 hits and striking out 6. The Twins have to be pleased from what they see by these rookies in their first games. It will be fun to see how Ben Revere plays for the remainder of the season.

Incase you didn't see it, blogger, Will Young recently had a Q&A with Ben Revere. I definitely recommend you reading it.