CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 37-40
St. Paul Saints: 33-40
Wichita Wind Surge: 37-32
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 41-28
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 29-38
FCL Twins: 23-11
DSL Twins: 3-11

TRANSACTIONS
Fort Myers activated OF Jose Rodriguez from the temporary inactive list.

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 3, Toledo 2 (10 innings)
Box Score
How do we get this version of Marco Raya more often? He threw 51 of his 76 pitches for strikes. That’s 67 percent strikes from a guy who entered today’s game with a 58 strike percentage on the year. As a result, Raya had averaged 6.4 BB/9 entering this outing. Today, he only issued one walk.

When Raya is sharp like this, it’s a sight to see. Over five innings, he only surrendered three hits and struck out eight batters. Raya topped out at 96.3 mph with his fastball, but featured his curveball, throwing that pitch 21 times and getting six swinging strikes. On the outing, Raya racked up 12 swinging strikes.

Unfortunately, the St. Paul lineup couldn’t provide Raya with any support and Travis Adams surrendered a pair of runs the inning after Raya’s exit. Adams did eventually settle in, however, as he delivered four innings of two-run ball despite walking four batters.

The Saints lineup eventually got it together, too. Yunior Severino led off the seventh inning with a walk, then Will Holland hit a double. After Diego Cartaya struck out, Edouard Julien was intentionally walked to load the bases. That proved to be an act of overconfidence, as Anthony Prato drew a five-pitch walk to push across the first Saints run of the game. Ryan Fitzgerald ended the potential rally by grounding into an inning-ending double play.

With the Saints trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth, Yunior Severino belted a leadoff, game-tying homer. The exit velocity on the opposite field blast was 105.0 mph and the projected distance was 420 feet, the second-longest home run hit across all of Triple-A today. Severino also boasted the hardest hit ball of the day at the level, a lineout he drove 110.7 mph. The dude is strong.

In a 2-2 game in the bottom of the 10th inning, Toledo turned to Riley Unroe on the mound. On one hand, he’s a position player. On the other hand, he picked up a win on the mound against the Saints earlier in the week after recording the final six outs for Toledo. So I guess it’s difficult to view that strategy as ridiculous when it was recently effective. 

Unroe was able to retire the first batter he faced, but Aaron Sabato ended the nonsense by hitting a 45 mph lob that was about a foot outside the other way for a walk-off single. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Arkansas 9, Wichita 2
Box Score
This game got out of hand in a hurry. Wichita starter Darren Bowen gave up five runs in the first inning before Joel Cesar surrendered four more in the fourth, putting the Wind Surge in an early 9-0 hole. To make matters worse, the lineup went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

Kaelen Culpepper went 1-for-5 as the leadoff man and committed a fielding error at shortstop. Walker Jenkins hit third and was 1-for-4 with a double. Gabriel Gonzalez had yet another strong performance, going 3-for-4 with a walk. He’s hitting .358/.430/.473 (.902 OPS) in 27 games since being promoted to Wichita.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Beloit 3, Cedar Rapids 2
Box Score
The Kernels had great scoring chances in both the eighth and ninth innings, but could not find a way to scratch across the game-tying run. Jaime Ferrer had the only Cedar Rapids RBI, as he drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning. Their other run came when Caden Kendle stole third base and scored on a throwing error. 

The eighth opened with singles from Danny De Andrade and Misael Urbina. A Kyle Hess single loaded the bases with one out, but they failed to capitalize. Cedar Rapids also led off the ninth inning with back-to-back singles, this time coming from Poncho Ruiz and Justin Connell. They came up empty once again.

On a more positive note, Cole Peschl continues to be a dependable arm. He gave up three runs on four hits, but also delivered 5 1/3 innings and didn’t issue a walk. Peschl has gone at least five innings in four consecutive starts. He’s not exactly an ironman, but that kind of consistency seems to be becoming more rare these days.

The newly-acquired Andy Lugo was the offensive star for Cedar Rapids. He was 3-for-4 with a double and stole two bases. Lugo, acquired from Boston in the Jorge Alcala trade, has hit .370/.452/.593 (1.045 OPS) in his first eight games in the org.

Kyle DeBarge stole his 38th base of the season in this one. He’s now 38-for-39 in stolen base attempts over 62 games played this season. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Lakeland 8, Fort Myers 4
Box Score
This was a back-and-forth affair with Lakeland delivering a knockout blow late. The Flying Tigers broke a tie to go up 5-4 in the seventh inning before breaking out with a three-run eighth inning.

Billy Amick, in the fifth game of his rehab assignment, was 2-for-4 and played a full game at third base. He also had the two highest exit velocities of this game, hitting a double at 105.3 mph along with a 102.8 mph single. 

Former indy baller Blaze O’Saben was 3-for-4 with a double, three RBIs and a stolen base for the Mighty Mussels. Dameury Pena also had a multi-hit game and stole a base.

Fort Myers starter Eli Jones surrendered four runs on seven hits over three innings while also walking three batters and hitting another. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Marco Raya, St. Paul (5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K)
Hitter of the Day: Andy Lugo, Cedar Rapids (3-for-4, 2B, 2 SB, R)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 

1. Walker Jenkins (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2B, RBI, K
4. Kaelen Culpepper (Wichita): 1-for-5, 2 K
10. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-5, K, SB (38)
11. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K
13. Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita): 3-for-4, BB, R
18. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 0-for-3, RBI, K
19. Danny De Andrade (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, K
20. Payton Eeles (St. Paul): 2-for-3, BB

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
FCL Twins at FCL Rays, 11 am CT: TBD
DSL Twins at DSL Phillies White, 10 am CT: TBD

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