Early season call ups may effect Miracle

Former Miracle oufielder Josh Rabe, second baseman Alexi Casilla, and left-hander pitcher Glen Perkins have all received early promotions to the Minnesota Twins.

While it's great to see former favorites progressing in the organization, it may not be good news for the Miracle. The Rochester Red Wings received catcher Chris Heintz from the Twins, but are still short two players and will be looking to the New Britain Rock Cats for help. That may well open an window for a couple of current Miracle players to earn trips to Connecticut.

And replacements might not be readily forthcoming.

Drew Thompson, Paul Kelly and Jose Leger are on the DL and nominally on the Beloit roster, but are expected to be re-assigned once they heal up. I have no word on the extent of their injuries so when they might be available to replace anyone lost to call ups is questionable. All three are currently attached to the Twins Minor League Complex at the Lee County Sportsplex.

Meanwhile, Rochester cancelled their game today against the Norfolk Tides due to poor field conditions following heavy rains in New York.

Beloit continues to lose games to snow, rain and poor field conditions, sitting out yesterday's game due to snow and then cancelling today's games, which would have been a double header. The team will make up the games in May and June.

The Miracle collected their first wins on the road against Lakeland yesterday in a double header. Juan Portes had two hits in the first game while Eddie Ovalle smacked one over the wall for two RBI's handing the Miracle a 5-4 win over the now Flying Tigers at Joker Marchent Stadium. Only Jeff Christy and Toby Gardenhire failed to record hits in the game, both going 0-for-3 at the plate.

In the second game, Frank Mata picked up the win in relief of Kyle Waldrop, while Erik Lis recorded two hits and batted in three to provide an offensive lift for the team. Steve Tolleson and Dwyane White were both 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs each while Portes continued to be hot, going 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs for the Miracle, who won the game 6-4.

The two teams play again tonight at 7:05 to finish off the three game series.

New Britain went 2-1 in a three game series against the Portland Sea Dogs. Former Miracle Brock Peterson, Luke Hughes and Kyle Geiger each had two runs batted in on Monday's game, which the Rock Cats won 8-6. Tim Lehay picked up the save in that one.

The hitting was more restrained in Tuesday's game, with Korey Feiner and Garrett Guzman getting the RBI's in a 3-1 victory. Jose Mijares had the save, while Korey Feiner and Brandon Roberts had two hits a piece in the game.

Last night was a different matter with the Red Sox AA affiliate roughing up Danny Powers for 4 runs in one inning. Trevor Plouffe and David Winfree each had two hits while Garrett Guzman batted in two runs, but the Rock Cats still fell 8-5 to Portland.

The Rock Cats open their 2007 season at home tonight against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Extended Spring Training continues at the Lee County Sportsplex. The Twins are at home against Pittsburgh today and Baltimore tomorrow and then take on the Red Sox in Fort Myers on Saturday. Game times are 12:30 pm for all contests.

Don't forget to check out www.miraclefans.com. We've added video clips of the game for the 2007 season including two of Oswaldo Sosa pitching for the home opener.