Saturday, May
1, 2010
Osterbrock’s No-No, and More
On Thursday, Kyle Gibson threw a one-hit shutout in
the Florida State League. On Saturday, in Game 2 of the Beloit Snappers
double-header against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, lefty Dan Osterbrock
threw a complete game, seven inning, no hitter in a 4-0 win. Osterbrock was the Twins 7th round pick out of
the University of Cincinnati in 2008. He went on to be the Appalachian League
Pitcher of the Year when he went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA for Elizabethton. In 75
innings, he walked just eight and struck out 104. He advanced to Beloit last
year, and he really struggled. He was 7-10 with a 5.19 ERA. He returned to
Beloit in 2010, and got off to a much better start. Through five starts, he is
now 2-1 with a 2.30 ERA. He has five walks and 27 strikeouts in 27.1 innings.
It was a seven
inning no-hitter because the teams played a double header, and when they play
two, they play just seven inning games. Osterbrock
had a perfect game going into the 7th inning. However, the leadoff
hitter was D’Vontrey Richardson. After fouling off a couple
of pitches, he took a slider in the dirt for ball four. However, Osterbrock coaxed a ground ball from the next hitter for a
double play. Brian Dozier caught a
pop up to end the game and give Osterbrock a
no-hitter. Although there have been three no-hitters in the Midwest League just
this week, I would think that Osterbrock could be
named at least a co-Pitcher of the Week in the league for the 2nd
straight week.
Following the game,
Tom Stuifbergen
said that, “it was really special.” He added, “If somebody deserves it, it is Osterbrock.”
MINOR NOTES
Although I didn’t
blog on Friday night and Saturday has been quite full, don’t think I haven’t
been writing. In the coming days, I’ll let you know about a couple of the
projects that I’ve worked on. But real briefly, I wanted to post a few
highlights from the minor league games of Friday and Saturday.
Beloit and
Wisconsin played a double header on Saturday because they were rained out on
Friday night. Along with Osterbrock’s no-hitter in
the second game, you may be interested in knowing that the Snappers won 4-0.
Also, Aaron Hicks went 3-4 with
three doubles. He is now hitting over .300. Tobias Streich was Osterbrock’s
catcher and also went 0-1 with two walks. The Snappers also won the first game
5-1. Josmil Pinto went 2-3. Hicks
was 0-1 and had two walks. Anderson
Hidalgo hit his first home run and drove in three runs. Liam Hendriks
started the game and improved to 2-0. He gave up one run on five hits in six
innings. He walked one and struck out six. Matt
Tone threw a perfect seventh inning..
Down in the
Florida State League, the Ft. Myers Miracle and St. Lucie Mets have played. On
Saturday, the Miracle won 8-7. Yangervis Solarte went 3-4 with a walk, two home runs and his
second stolen base. Nate Hanson went
3-5 with a steal. Deibinson Romero was 2-3 with two walks, his
first homer and three RBI. Evan Bigley, Dan Rohlfing and Jonathan
Goncalves each had two hits. Bobby Lanigan improved to 2-1 despite
allowing five runs on six hits in six innings. He didn’t walk anyone and struck
out five. Matt Williams, Michael Allen and Billy Bullock each struck out two in an inning of relief. Bullock
recorded his fourth save. The Miracle also won 5-3 on Friday night. Michael Tarsi gave up three runs (2
earned) on five hits and two walks in six innings. Blake Martin struck out two in his scoreless inning. Shooter Hunt got the win as he struck
out three and walked none in two innings of relief. The Miracle had six hits,
and Nate Hanson hit his first home run of the year.
TREND? Shooter Hunt has pitched eight times in relief this year for the
Miracle. In his first four games, he walked seven and struck out five in 3.1
innings of work. In his past four games, he has 15 strikeouts and NO WALKS in
10 innings of relief. There is no reason to move him right now into the
starting rotation, but it is certainly a positive trend right now. Hunt has
great stuff, and he is one of the really good guys in the organization, so
hopefully he can continue to improve.
New Britain lost
twice to Portland in the past two days. David
Bromberg started on Friday night and gave up two runs (1 earned) on five
hits and two walks in six innings. He left with a 4-2 lead. Joe Testa came in and gave up one
hit and walked two. Chris Province
came in to face the team he played for a year ago and it didn’t go so well. He
faced seven batters and got just one out. He gave up one hit and walked five.
Henry Arias got the final five outs and gave up two runs on four hits. Juan Portes
went 2-4 with his second homer. Rene Tosoni and Mark Dolenc each went 2-4 in the 13-4 loss. On Saturday, the
Rockcats lost just 4-1. Carlos Gutierrez started and gave up one run on three hits and
three walks in six innings. Spencer Steedley, who was arguably the best relief pitcher in
the Twins system in April, took the loss. He gave up three runs on four hits
and two walks in two innings. Rene Tosoni was again 2-4, and Toby Gardenhire added a double.
Ryan Mullins improved to 2-0 with the Rochester Red Wings. He
gave up three runs (2 earned) on six hits and a walk in the Red Wings Friday
night win over Lehigh Valley. He struck out six. Anthony Slama
and Rob Delaney each pitched a
scoreless inning. Matt Macri went 3-4 with two doubles. Dustin Martin went 2-4 with his fourth home run and four RBI. Danny Valencia went 2-4 with his
seventh double. Brian Dinkelman was also 2-4. On Saturday, Matt Fox got a chance to start in place
of Jeff Manship,
who made a start for the Twins. Fox threw five shutout innings, allowing just
two hits and one walk while striking out five. Jose Lugo struck out three in two scoreless innings. Kyle Waldrop gave up two hits but no
runs in his inning. Anthony Slama recorded his sixth save with a one-hit inning. Brian Dinkelman
was 3-3 with a walk and his fourth double. Trevor
Plouffe and Danny
Valencia each went 2-4.
By the way, be
sure to check out Roger’s
Weekly Twins Minor League Report at Twinkie Town.
MAJOR NOTES
The Twins split
the first two games with Cleveland in Cleveland, winning the first game 9-3 and
lowing 5-4 in 11 innings on Saturday. On Sunday, the Twins will send Francisco Liriano
to the mound against David Huff in
what should be a fun pitching matchup. After Friday night’s game, Luke Hughes was optioned back to
Rochester and Nick Punto
was activated from the Disabled List. Jeff
Manship
made the start for the Twins on Saturday night in place of Nick Blackburn who left the team on family emergency leave. Again,
I hope whatever his family issue is isn’t too serious and can be resolved, and
if it’s personal, I hope it can stay personal. Anyway, Manship
started and in the first inning, he struck out the side. He went six innings
and gave up just two runs, an excellent showing.
Before the game,
it was announced that Joe Mauer would not start for at least a couple of days due
to a bruised heel. Wilson Ramos was on his way to Cleveland and will be making his
major league debut for the team on Sunday, which should be fun to watch despite
his AAA batting average so far this year being just .179 (he does have three
home runs). My assumption was that Ramos would take Manship’s
roster spot after the game, but after the game, Joe Christensen tweeted that Ramos would replace Pat Neshek on
the roster, although it was uncertain whether Neshek would be options to Rochester or placed the Disabled
List. Although he was given clearance by the Twins medical staff to pitch nine
days ago, he has pitched just twice and is still not quite 100% The most
important thing is for Neshek to get innings, but
only after he is healthy.
Any questions? Leave
your comments here.