Minor Leagues

Brett Andersen made his first start in just over a year since he had Tommy John surgery, and the lefty was back in fine form. He gave up just one run on four hits and no walks in seven innings. Sean Doolittle pitched a perfect eighth. Then former Twins reliever Grant Balfour recorded his 12^th save with a perfect ninth. In other words, the Twins offense just did not show up. Trevor Plouffe was again 0-4 and is now 2-29 in eight games since his return from the DL. Jamey Carroll was 0-3, and he now has one hit in his last 22 at bats over six games. Ryan Doumit is 3-22 in his last six games (yet still is hitting .290).
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The Twins fell to 50-70 on the season after a weekend sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners. On Sunday, Sam Deduno gave the Twins another Quality Start despite doing his best Deduno impersonation. The effectively wild righty gave up just two runs despite allowing five hits and walking six batters. He walked in the tying run and the go-ahead run scored on a double play. Jeff Gray pitched in the seventh inning and gave up three runs to put the game out of reach. Glen Perkins came in and struck out the side in the 8^th inning. Ryan Doumit was the only played with two hits. Josh Willingham and Pedro Florimon each hit doubles.

Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Sunday:
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The Twins fell behind the Mariners early thanks to some more bad pitching by Nick Blackburn. John Jaso hit a two-run homer in the first inning, and Miguel Olivo hit a hanging curveball. The Twins’ bats didn’t do much early either. After Felix Hernandez’s perfect game on Thursday, Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma was perfect through the first four innings. In the fifth frame, Justin Morneau led off with a double. A couple of batters later, Matt Carson came up and singled in Morneau to put the Twins on the board. Unfortunately, the Twins went behind 5-1 behind Blackburn which put the game out of reach. In the 8^th inning, they still tried. Joe Mauer hit his eighth homer of the year to dead center. Josh Willingham came up next and drilled his 31^st homer of the year to cut the lead to 5-3. However, that was it for the scoring and the Mariners picked up the win.

The Twins played without the services of outfielders ...

Despite being the Twins 1^st round pick in the 2006 draft out of his school, it took until September of 2011 for his to become a household name among many Twins fans. After five seasons in the minor leagues, Parmelee was promoted directly from Double-A New Britain when the Rock Cats season ended just short of a playoff berth. Parmelee had put together a very strong second half for the Rock Cats, but no one could have imagined how well he played in September. He played nearly every day, 21 games in all, and hit .355/.443/.592 with six doubles, four homers and 14 RBI. In 88 plate appearances, he walked twice and struckout 13 times.

Parmelee gives us a glimpse into why minor league numbers and statistics are secondary to player development. ...

Brian Duensing put the Twins in an early hole by giving up two runs in each of the first two innings but the Twins were able to make a game of it versus the Tigers. A big bottom of the third inning helped to even the score with Josh Willingham providing most of the damage with a 3-run home run, his 30th of the season. It is a new career high for Willingham and it breaks the previous record that he set last season with Oakland. Unfortunately, the Twins woudn't score again and the Tigers would come out on top in this game.

Most of the minor league teams fared better than the Twins so let's take a trip through the minors on a Tuesday night. ...

The beauty of baseball is many-fold. On any given night. You just never know. Teams need stars to play well over the course of a season to be successful. But on any given night, anyone can step up when you least expect it and help you to a win. On Monday night, Samuel Deduno was wild as ever, but he somehow managed to pitch into the 8^th inning and gave the Twins offense an opportunity to work without being behind. Darin Mastroianni was in the lineup as Denard Span and his shoulder are day-to-day. He came through with a solo home run that gave the Twins a 2-1 lead. Later, he had a big two-run single that broke the game open. It was Ryan Doumit who put it out of reach when he blasted a three-run homer, his 13^th of the year.

It was a quiet night in the Twins farm system. New Britain, Ft. Myers and Eizabethton had scheduled nights off. The GCL Twins were rained out. There was some thunder in Beloit, but fortunately it was off the bats of two of their big boppers. And the Red Wings game came right down to the last at bat, an at bat by the guy that the Red Wings would want in that position. Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Monday night: ...