Saturday, June 14, 2008

Big Hits, Big Slow and a Big Win!

Hey ya'll, a quick update on Friday night's games with a few links. Nothing too special, but I always like to keep you updated, ya know?! The Twins got a much needed easy win with some, as you would guess from the title, BIG moments. Check out the minor league information as there were several moves the last couple of days, and I am told to expect more early next week. No surprise really. Also, I am hearing rumblings of more fireworks for our Beloit team, so I am looking into that. If I find out more, I'll be sure to update the site.

TWINS 10, BREWERS 2

• The Twins took Game 1 of this weekend's border battle, thanks to several really BIG moments:

  • The conversation needs to start with the pitching of Kevin Slowey. The Twins needed a start like this. Slowey kept his pitch count low. He threw strikes. He didn't give up really any hard hit balls. He hit spots and mixed up his pitches. I actually saw that he was throwing a little bit harder the last couple of innings than he threw early in the game. He went eight innings and gave up two runs on five hits. He walks none and struck out five. BIG Pitching Performance!

  • The second thing you just have to talk about is the hitting of Kevin Slowey. After getting out in his first two at bats, Slowey drilled a double over the left fielder's head for a double. In his next at bat, he came up with the bases loaded after the Brewers intentionally walked Mike Lamb to get to him. Despite Lamb's struggles in June, it was the right decision. Fortunately for the Twins, Slowey came up with a BIG Hit, a single to left that drove in two runs and extended the Twins lead to 6-0.

  • At the time, it was 4-0 because Justin Morneau drove in a run on a groundout after the first of two BIG errors by Bill Hall. A couple of innings later, he hit a BIG triple that scored two runs and scored on a hit by Delmon Young.

  • After Slowey's two run single, Carlos Gomez had an infield single to load the bases. That's when Alexi Casilla hit a BIG, bases clearing double that extended the lead to 9-0 and really put the game out of reach.

  • OK, maybe based on the timing (up 9-1), it may not have been BIG, but Jason Kubel hit his ninth home run, putting him one homer behind Justin Morneau for the team lead.

  • Maybe the BIG news during the game was that Michael Cuddyer, who left the game after being hit by a pitch in the hand in his first plate appearance, does not have any broken bones. He says he should be able to play Saturday, or at least Sunday. Delmon Young came up BIG. He replaced Cuddyer in the lineup and went 3-4 with an RBI.

• By the way, Juan Rincon refused his AAA assignment and was officially Designated for Assignment.

Any other Twins thoughts?

Twins Minor League Updates

Friday SethSpeaks Player of the Day – Steve Singleton, Beloit Snappers
Friday SethSpeaks Pitcher of the Day – Kevin Mulvey, Rochester Red Wings

ROCHESTER REPORT
Friday – Rochester 1, Durham 0 – There was a three hour rain delay in this game, and I don't know if it was a good or bad thing for the Red Wings and specifically Kevin Mulvey. The young righty was putting together a great start when the rains came. He went four shutout innings and gave up just one hit and one walk while striking out seven. Carmen Cali came in after the delay and threw three shutout innings, allowing just one hit. He improved to 4-0. Bobby Korecky threw the final two innings for his seventh save. Garrett Jones led the offense. He went 2-4 with the game's lone RBI. He also stole his fifth and sixth bases. Trevor Plouffe made his first Rochester start. Interesting that he started at 3B and not SS. That said, he had started at 3B that last couple of games he played at New Britain. He went 0-3 in the game.

NEW BRITAIN NEWS
Friday – New Britain 2, Binghamton 2 (10 innings) – Jay Rainville came back from a really bad start with a very solid start. He gave up just one run on four hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out six. Yohan Pino came back with 1.2 innings of relief work. He gave up a run on three hits in 1.2 innings. Jay Sawatski came in and got his guy out. Ben Julianel gave up two hits and a walk in his inning, but no runs. Zach Ward took the loss as he gave up the 10th inning run. Dustin Martin led off and went 1-3 with two walks and his 14th stolen base. Erik Lis went 2-4 with his 27th double. Felix Molina went 2-4.

FT MYERS MEMOS
Friday – Ft. Myers – No Game Scheduled. The league has a day off before Saturday's All Star game. As you recall, the Miracle are represented by Danny Valencia, Brian Dinkelman, Wilson Ramos, Jeff Manship, Rob Delaney and Anthony Slama. I would then expect at least four of them to be moved up to New Britain, and that is what LaVelle posted on Friday as well after talking to someone with the Twins.

BELOIT BITS
Friday – Beloit 4, Quad Cities 5 - Santos Arias unfortunately takes the loss in this one. He went the first five innings and gave up only an unearned run on four hits. He walked none and struck out four. I guess I don't need to feel too bad, I mean, the error that led to the unearned run was a throwing error by Arias himself. Dan Berlind must be getting some work out of the bullpen. I suppose with the All-Star break upcoming, he could use the work. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on five hits and two walks in two innings. He did strike out four. Loek Van Mil then worked a scoreless inning. Ben Revere again led the offense. He went 3-5 with his 6th triple and 22nd stolen base. Steve Singleton went 2-5 with his sixth homer and three RBI.

Have a great Saturday! I'll be back.

|

Back to Archives Home