Pirates down Twins, pull ahead in playoff race

GCL Twins 1 at GCL Pirates 4

W: G. Amato (2-0, 0.00); L: A. Sanchez (2-3, 3.71)
HR: None.

The GCL Pirates roughed up Twins starter Angelo Sanchez, taking 3 earned runs of him on 7 hit and a pair of walks over 3 innings at Pirate City in Bradenton.

Meanwhile Gabrial Alvarado limited the GCL Twins to just one hit and pair of walks over the first four innings.

Adenson Chourio singled in the bottom of the 1st then moved to 2nd on Edwin Roman's sac bunt. Jarek Cunningham would fly out before Edward Garcia singled in Chourio to put the Pirates on the board in the bottom of the first.

Cunningham would single in the bottom of the 3rd with one out on the board. Sanchez then unleashed a pair of wild pitches that advanced Cunningham to 3rd. Garcia would take walk before Carlos Silva doubled in Cunningham. Craig Parry's follow up single to center scored Garcia. Sanchez would get Andury Acevedo out on strikes, but issued a walk to Jesus Aguilera to load up the bags. Happily, Kyle Saukko ground into a force out to to end the inning.

Ian Mopas replaced Sanchez for the fourth. After getting Chourio to pop out, he'd give up back-to-back singles to Roman and Cunningham. A throwing error on the Roman's single advanced to him 2nd and he'd come home on Cunningham's line drive. Mopas then picked Cunningham off at first, but walked Garcia and advanced him to second on a balk. Silva ground out however to get Mopas out of the inning.

Ivan Herrera-Rusova replaced Alvarado at the top of the fifth. The top of the seventh would see Josmir Pinto double. Ladendorf ground out, and the Pirates brought in Gary Amato to replace Herrera-Rusova. Amato would get Javier Brown out on strikes, but Jon Goncalves doubled to score Pinto for the lone Twins run.

Pinto would finish up 2-for-4 at the plate with a pair of doubles and a run. Aaron Hicks and Juan Sanchez were both 1-for-4, while Andres Diaz, Brown and Goncalves were all 1-for-3, Diaz and Brown with walks and Goncavles with a double and a RBI.

Sanchez would take the loss, his third of the season. Mopas worked three allowing 1 run, unearned, on 2 hits and 2 walks, striking out just one. Khol Nanney worked the last 2 innings, allowing just one Pirates hit.

The Pirates pull out to a 1.5 game lead in the South Division, while the Twins still head up the wild card race.

The GCL Orioles come into the Lee County Sportsplex for a game against the GCL Twins Thursday at noon. They Twins remain at home to take on the GCL Reds on Friday.

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DSL Yankees2 3 at DSL Twins 2

W: W. Eusebio (4-5, 5.40); L: E. Alvarez (0-3, 2.34)
HR: DSL TWI: D. Santana (1).

Despite a home run by Danny Santana, the Twins fell in extra innings to the DSL Yankees2 at home. Closer Edison Alvarez would suffer the loss, his third of the season.

Santana put a ball over the center field all in the bottom of the first with one out. Yankee's starter Victor Beriguete worked 5.2 innings for the Yankees.

Following a ground out to Oswaldo Arcia in the top of the sixth, Jairo Perez tripled. Eliel Sierra would sacrifice him in. Manuel Soliman would take a walk before Beriguete was lifted in favor of Sherssy Cruz, who finished the inning by getting Jhonatan Arias to ground into a force out.

Beriguete exited the game allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits and 3 walks while fanning 2.

The Yankees would take an unearned run from Eliecer Cardenas in the third inning. Juan Rijo singled, and Julio Rojas advanced him on a sac bunt. But a throwing error by Yancarlo Franco as 3rd base allowed Rojas to reach and while Rijo took an extra base, moving to 3rd. Keny Rodriguez hit into a double play, but Rijo came home while the Twins were busy taking Rojas out at 2nd.

Alvarez took over in the to of the 8th. In the top of the ninth, Kelvin De Leon tripled off the Twins closer. After Reymond Nunez went down on strikes, Henry Pena would reach on a fielder's choice. The play at the plate failed however, as De Leon scored to tie up the contest.

Eduardo Sosa tripled in the top of the 10th, then came home on a De Leon single one out later. The Twins could find no offense in the bottom half of the stanza to counter with, as Felix Caro went down swinging to end it.

Santana, Arcia, and Perez were all 1-for-4 with Santana and Perez added a run each. Yorby Martinez was 1-for-2 with a walk and a double. Meanwhile the Yankees put seven hits on the board off the Twins pitchers.

The Twins are on the road Thursday against the DSL Diamondbacks/Reds. Game time, as always, is 10:30 AM Dominican time.

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Twins drop close game to Red Sox

GCL Red Sox 3 at GCL Twins 2

W: A. Zerpa (1-0, 0.00); L: J. Mijares (0-1, 5.00); SV: D. Neuman (2)
HR: None.

The GCL Twins took an early lead, but could not hold off the GCL Red Sox who found the game winning run in the top of the 9th inning.

Wang-Yi Lin worked the first 4.2 innings for the Red Sox, and would allow a pair of runs in the second inning, neither of which were earned.

Hyeong-rok Choi singled in the bottom of the of the second inning and moved to 2nd on Josmil Pinto's ground out. Juan Sanchez's bunt single moved Rok to second. A throwing error by Lin on a pick off attempt sent Rok acrossed the plate for the first Twins run, and got Sanchez to 3rd. Jakub Hajtmar took a walk before Jon Goncalves ground into a force out that plated Sanchez.

Lin would allow 4 hits and a pair of walks total, while fanning five, giving way to Armando Zerpa for the next 3.1 innings. The Venezuelan would pick up the win, limiting the Twins to only two hits, while fanning 3.

Roberto Ramos took a single off Twins starter Angelo Sanchez in the top of the 3rd, then stole 2nd base. A wild pitch by Sanchez move Ramos to 3rd. Wilfred Pichardo would strike out before Derrick Gibson doubled to drive in Ramos for the first Red Sox run.

In the top of the 4th Andrew Frezza singled and stole 2nd base. A wild pitch advanced Frezza to 3rd and he'd be plated by Chih-Hsiang Huang's sac fly, tying the game.

Sanchez would allow both runs, earned, on 3 hits and 3 walks while fanning 6 over the first 4 innings. Mauro Schiavoni worked the next 3, allowing 3 hits and walk while fanning 2.

Jean Mijares would work the final two innings. Mijares walked Joantoni Garcia in the top fo the 9th. Christian Vazquez sac-bunt moved the runner to 2nd and Ramos ground out got him to 3rd. Wilfred Pichardo then singled out to center to platd Garcia for the game winning run.

Dennis Neuman would allow a walk to Pinto in the bottom of the ninth, but the Twins could not get a runner past 2nd base before Goncalves ground out to end the contest.

Adam Everett playing on a rehab assignment was 2-for-4 but did not factor into the scoring. Sanchez was also 2-for-4 with a run, while Hicks was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk. Choi finished up 1-for-4 with a run to round out the offense.

The Twins rest on Wednesday, then travel to Bradenton for a game on Thursday against the GCL Pirates at Noon, eastern time.

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DSL Twins 2 at DSL Indians 4

W: J. Quintero (1-0, 2.96); L: A. Salcedo (1-4, 1.72); SV: J. Pena (10)
HR: DSL TWI: J. Rodriguez (1). DSL IND: K. Diaz (5).

The DSL Indians doubled up the DSL Twins 2-4 Tuesday morning. A 9th inning rally by the Twins could not catch them up with Tribe leading 3-1 going into the inning.

Jairo Rodriguez homered for the DSL Twins, his first of the season going over the left field fence.

Manuel Soliman walked in the top of the 9th, then moved to 2nd on Oswaldo Arcia's ground out. Jairo Perez singled Soliman in, then stole 2nd base. But Rodriguez would ground to end the contest, with the Twins still trailing by two.

Adrian Salcedo allowed a pair of runs, neither earned, on 2 hits while fanning 5 over six inning to take the hard luck loss. Carlos Carrillo would get hard hit, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits and walk in only 1 inning worth of work.

Soliman was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and a run. Perez was 1 for 3 with a runs scored. Rodriguez was 1-for-4 with the solo shot home run and Juan Blanco was also 1-for-3, the one hit wonder of the game.

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Twin use Orioles mistakes for win

GCL Twins 7 at GCL Orioles 4

W: A. Sanchez (2-1, 1.83); L: S. Taveras (0-3, 8.59); SV: K. Nanney (1)
HR: None.

Herbert Lara had 3 runs and Jonathan Goncalves picked up a pair as the GCL Twins downed the GCL Orioles, 7-4

Angelo Sanchez worked 5 innings, allowing 1 run, earned on six hits and a walk while striking out 2 to collect his second win of the season.

Lara would reach on a fielding error in the top of the 3rd, and moved to 2nd. A passed ball by Janesis Guerrero moved him to 3rd. Goncalves would take a walk and Aaron Hicks would follow that up with a single to score Lara. Adam Everett, on rehab assignment from the Major League Twins singled to load up the bags. Danny Ortiz would hit a sac fly out to right to plate Goncalves, and Ladendorf followed with a sac-fly to left to bring in Hicks.

Brian Anderson would replace Sam Taveras in the top of the 4th, and got Reggie Williams to ground out before hitting Lara with a pitch. Goncalves would reach on a fielding error that put Lara on 2nd, and a walk to Hicks got him to 3rd. Everett then sacrificed him in to make it 4-0 Twins.

The O's answered back in the bottom of the inning with Dennis Perez doubling. Sanchez then plunked Michael Gioioso with a pitch. Guerrero hit into a force out to short that took Gioioso out at 2nd, but Perez came home on the play, giving 1 to the birds.

Luiyi Batista replaced Anderson in the top of the sixth. Lara and Goncalves hit back-to-back singles and Hicks walked to load up the bags again. A wild pitch by Batista brought in Lara and Juan Sanchez, pinch hitting for Everett, knocked a line drive to center to score the remaining two runners.

Jose Mijares worked a scoreless sixth, and gave way to Steve Blevins in the seventh. Xavier Avery singled, then moved to second on Garabez Rosa's ground out. Jerome Hoes then tripled to score Avery, while a Dashenko Ricardo ground out would plate Hoes.

The O's final run came in the bottom of the 8th. Kyle Carr would hit Michael Gioioso with a pitch, then unleash a wild pitch to put him on second. Guerrero would ground out, moving Gioiso to 3rd and a fielding error by Reggie Williams saw Grohmann Gonzalez reach and Gioioso score.

Newcomer Khol Nanney replaced Carr for the Ninth and used a pair of ground outs and a fly out to finish off the O's.

Everett finished up 2-for-2 with a RBI, while Sanchez was 1-for-2 as a replacement, knocking in a pair. Mike Gonzales was also 2-for-2 with a walk as well, but did not factor into the scoring.

The Twins take on the GCL Reds at the City of Sarasota Complex on Friday. They return home on Saturday for a morning game with the Red Sox.

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DSL Twins 2 at DSL White Sox 3

W: L. Teis (6-1, 1.58); L: A. Salcedo (1-3, 2.55); SV: J. Rojas (5)
HR: None.

After being shut out for seven innings, the DSL Twins attempted a late inning rally but fell short, losing 3-2 to the DSL White Sox.

Adrian Salcedo took the start for the Twins, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits while striking out 2 over five innings. It was a quality start, unfortunately, the Twins could find little offense against the White Sox's Luis Teis, who scattered five hits over six innings to keep the Twins off the board.

Hector Eusebio took over the pitching chores for the White Sox in the top of the 7th and despite a walk to Oswaldo Arcia and a double to Jairo Rodriguez, kept the goose eggs in tact. He'd not fair so well in the 8th.

Xavier Gonzalez and Danny Santana both singled. Lesther Galvin would hit into a force out that took Gonzalez out at 3rd, but walk to Manuel Soliman loaded the bases. Yancarlo Franco's ground out scored Santana but Eliel Sierra ground out to end the inning.

The top of the ninth saw Jhonatan Arias single before a pitching change brought Juan Rojas to the mound. Rodriguez took a single off of him as would Juan Blanco to drive in Arias. But Gonzalez, Santana and Galvan all went down on strikes to end the contest.

Rodrigues, Blanco, Gonzalez and Arias were all 2-for-4, Arias with a run, Blanco with a run scored and Rodriguez with a double. Santana was 2-for-5 with a run. Arcia was 1-for-2 with a walk to round out the hitting, while Franco was 0-for-1 at the plate, but drove in one.

The DSL Twins host the DSL Indians on Friday. Start time is 10:30 AM Dominican Time, as always.

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