Friday Night Game Notes
Twins Win Big, Wings Win with Walk Off
The
Twins were on the good side of a blowout on Friday night. Meanwhile, down on
the farm, all four affiliates played some close, very exciting games, so be
sure to read all of those game stories below.
Let’s
start first with the Twins. The Twins had a game last night like they really
needed. It was fun to watch a game in which the Twins were the team to jump out
to an early lead. With Tim Wakefield taking Daisuke Matsuzaka’s
scheduled start, the Twins jumped to an early lead. Trevor Plouffe,
batting second in the Twins lineup, hit a long shot over the Green Monster for
his first home run, in his first at bat of the season. The Twins scored three
more in the second inning. Denard Span drove in two
runs with a hit. Later Ben Revere scored on a balk by Wakefield that Red Sox
manager, Terry Francona, didn’t necessarily agree
with. He was ejected. JD Drew hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second, and
Adrian Gonzalez hit one over the Monster to cut the lead to 4-2 after four
innings. But in the Top of the 5th, the Twins broke it open. Danny
Valencia came up with the bases loaded, and drilled a double off the Monster
that scored two runs. Drew Butera hit a hard grounder
that the shortstop, Jed Lowrie, booted after being
screened on the play by Valencia. All told, the game was now 8-2. Alfredo Aceves then balked in one more run on one of the most
obvious balk calls ever. It was as is he started his delivery and forgot where
he was and what he was doing.
Plouffe
was 2-4 with a walk, that home run and a stolen base that directly let to a
run. Valencia, Denard Span, Michael Cuddyer each had two hits.
Scott
Baker was tremendous again. He gave up two runs on seven hits in eight innings.
Both runs came on solo home runs. He walked just one and struck out eight. He
gave up eight runs in 11 innings in his first two starts. He walked six and struck
out nine. In his four starts since, he has given up five runs in 28.1 innings.
He has walked four and struck out 25 strikeouts. Joe Nathan walked one in a
scoreless ninth.
On
Saturday, the Twins have a noon start. Brian Duensing
(2-1, 2.91 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, .264 BAA) will face off against Clay Buchholz (2-3,
4.81 ERA, 1.78 WHIP, .311 BAA).
The
Twins blew out Boston for their first win at Fenway Park since 2007. Down in
the minor leagues, the games were much, much closer!
Minor League Notes
Best
wishes to Allan de San Miguel. The Australian catcher found the he has a torn
UCL. He is expecting to find out today whether he will have Tommy John surgery
or the standard Twins determination to just ‘rest and rehab.’ If it’s a torn
UCL, get the surgery done right away and start the rehab right away.
David
Bromberg called me last night and we discussed his injury, surgery and rehab.
Again, it was about ten days ago that he was pitching his best game of the year
when a line drive came back at him. He put up his arm to protect himself and
broke his ulna. He could have done the ‘rest and rehab’ thing too, but was told
he could be back and pitching sooner if he had surgery. So, earlier this week,
he had the surgery and had five screws put into his arm. The surgery went well,
and Bromberg is now in Ft. Myers where he will be in a cast the next two weeks.
He’ll be on a throwing program and probably make a couple of rehab starts in
EST and/or Ft. Myers.
Friday SethSpeaks.net Minor League Hitter of the Day– Steve
Singleton, Rochester Red Wings
Friday SethSpeaks.net Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Bruce Pugh,
Ft. Myers Miracle
Red Wings Ramblings
Friday
– Red Wings 7, Gwinnett 5 – Before
Thursday’s games, the Red Wings added Ray Chang and Steve Singleton. On
Thursday, Chang played hero with a game-winning single. On Friday, it was
Singleton’s turn to play hero. Eric Hacker made his first start since returning
to the Red Wings. In 4.1 innings, he gave up one run (his first earned run
allowed of the season) on four hits. He walked two and struck out three. Jeff Manship gave up two runs on three hits in 2.1 innings. Phil
Dumatrait walked one in 1.1 scoreless innings.
Anthony Slama gave up two unearned runs in the top of
the 9th, to set the table. Steve Holm went 1-1 with three walks and
drove in two runs with his single. Ray Chang went 2-4 with a walk and second
double. Steve Singleton went 1-3 with a walk on Thursday. He started the Friday
game 1-3 as well before he came to bat in the 8th inning. The Red
Wings were down by a run and Singleton hit his first AAA home run to tie the
game. Unfortunately Gwinnett scored those two unearned runs in the top of the 9th
frame, but that just set the table. With two outs and two on, Singleton came to
the plate again. This time, he hit a three-run game-winning, walk-off home run.
Kyle Gibson will start for Rochester on
Saturday night (6:05 CT) against Gwinnett. Not certain who will start for the
Braves. Julio Teheran (one of the top prospects in baseball) was supposed to
start, but he was promoted to the Braves to make a spot start for Tim Hudson.
Rock Cats Report
Friday
– Rock Cats 10, Portland 7 – Down 7-3
going into the 8th inning, the Rock Cats scored two in the 8th
and five in the 9th to win this game. Dan Osterbrock
made his first Rock Cats start, and it didn’t go as well as he would have
hoped. He gave up seven runs on eight hits and two walks and two hit bats in
3.1 innings. Brett Jacobson threw 2.1 scoreless innings. He gave up a hit,
walked two and struck out two. Spencer Steedley got
four outs, two of them on strikeouts. Mike Tarsi walked two in a scoreless
inning. Cole DeVries came on and pitched another
scoreless inning for his seventh save. Michael Holliman went 2-4 with a walk. Chris
Herrmann went 2-4 with his first two AA doubles. Chris Parmelee
came up big. He was 3-5 with his third home run and four RBI. He had a two-run
homer in the 8th, and he drove in another run with a single in the
ninth. Evan Bigley went 2-5 with his seventh double. Bigley, Dan Rohlfing and Yangervis Solarte each had
doubles in that five-run ninth inning.
Deolis Guerra and his 8.31 ERA will take the mound for the
Rock Cats at noon on Saturday.
Miracle Matters
Friday
– Miracle 4, Jupiter 3 (10) – Down
3-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning, Ramon Santana singled in
Anderson Hidalgo with the tying run. Fast-forward to the bottom of the 10th.
Hidalgo singled and advanced to 2B on wild pitch. Ramon Santana came to the plate
again and singled in Hidalgo with the game-winning run. Hidalgo is now hitting
.338 after he was 3-4 with a walk in this game. James Beresford is hitting .347
after going 2-5. Jhonathan Goncalves
went 1-2 with two walks. Aaron Hicks was 1-3 with two walks. Ramon Santana went
2-5, but I think it’s fair to say that his two hits were both fairly important.
Andrew Albers started and gave up three runs on six hits and two walks in four
innings. Matt Tone then threw three shutout innings. Bruce Pugh gets the win
after throwing three shutout innings, including four strikeouts.
On Saturday at 5:05 CT, Tom Stuifbergen will take the mound for the Miracle against
Jupiter.
Snappers Bites
Friday
– Snappers 3, Wisconsin 4 – Manuel Soliman started this game and gave up two runs on five hits.
In five innings, he walked two and struck out seven. Michael Tonkin was charged
with an unearned run in his two innings. Clint Dempster
came in and gave up an unearned run on a walk and recorded just one out. Matt
Hauser got the final five outs, three of them on strikeouts. The Snappers were
without Danny Ortiz for this game (although he did pinch hit late in the game),
so it should come as no surprise that they managed just six hits. Michael
Gonzales drove in two runs, both on sacrifice flies. Lance Ray was 1-2 with a
walk. Jamaal Hawkins hit his third double.
The Snappers travel to Cedar Rapids for a
three game series. BJ Hermsen will take the mound to
start for the team in the 5:35 game. You will recall that Hermsen
is from a city about an hour from Cedar Rapids. Last year, he made a start in
Cedar Rapids and took a no-hitter into the 9th inning.
As always,
if you have any
questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.
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