Sloppy Twins hand Pirates a win

GCL Twins 1 at GCL Pirates 3

W: I. Herrera-Rusova (1-0, 3.86); L: M. Garcia (2-2, 3.25)
HR: None.

Sloppy play and sloppy weather saw the GCL Twins fall to the GCL Pirates 3-1 in Bradenton despite giving up only one hit in six innings to the Bucs.

AFter getting Adenson Chouno out on strikes in the bottom of the first inning, Martire Garcia would walk Ben Gonzalez. Jarek Cunningham would fall to strikes as well, at which point Gonzalez stole 2nd. A throwing error by Javier Brown at 2nd base allowed Gonzalez to score and Edward Garcia to reach, giving the Pirates a one run lead.

Garcia would work the next four innings, allowing a walk to Craig Perry in the bottom of the 4th and hitting Victor Sanchez in the bottom of the 5th.

Gabriel Alvarado was equally good for the Pirates. in the top of the sixth, with one out, Javier Brown singled, but would be caught stealing. Jon Goncalves singled and Aaron Hicks walked. Ivan Herrera-Rusova replaced Alvarado at that point and walked Anderson Hidalgo. A passed ball by Jesus Aguilera saw Goncalves score, tying up the game.

Chourino reached on fielding error by Garcia. Gonzalez would move him to 2nd with a sac bunt, and wild pitch by Garcia advanced him to 3rd. Cunningham then took a walk, putting men on the corners. Miguel Munoz would come in at that point and walked Edward Garcia to load the bags. Parry would go down on strikes, but Carlos Silva singled, driving in two. Silve then stole 2nd, but Sachez ground out to end the inning.

At the point the game was stopped due to rain, so the Twins never had a chance to catch up.

The Twins fall to two games back with five left to play. They will host the GCL Orioles for two of those game, Sunday at 11:00 at the Lee County Sportsplex.

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DSL Indians 2 at the DSL Twins 4

W: O. Villaroel (4-4, 2.51); L: J. Campos (4-3, 3.32); SV: E. Alvarez (15)
HR: None.

Orlando Villaroel picked up the win, his 4th of the season, and Edison Alvarez recorded his 15th save as the DSL Twins topped the DSL Indians 4-2 at Baseball City Saturday, winning the Boca Chica North Division.

Manuel Soliman singled in the bottom of the 3rd, but Yorby Martinez hit into a ground out that nabbed him at 2nd. Jhonatan Arias doubled, and Martinez scored from first to give the Twins a one run lead.

Soliman again singled in the bottom of the fifth and would try to stretch it for a double, being taken out at second. Martinez and Arias hit back-to-back singles before Wilfy Gil ground into a force out, leaving runners at the corners. Danny Santana reached on a throwing error that allowed Martinez to score. Gil then stole 3rd and a trowing error by catcher Henry Moreno sent him scurrying home for the 3rd Twins run. Jean Carlos Mercedes took a walk and Jairo Perez singled allowing Santana to cross the plate for run number four.

In the top of the sixth, Argenis Martinez took a walk with one out on the board for the Tribe. Jesus Aguilar doubled . Darling Read singled to plate the two, making it 4-2 Twins, but Roman Vinicio ground out and Yileiviu Fernandez struck out to retire the side.

Despite a single and a stolen base in the top of the 7th, the Indians never really threatened after that, as the Twins went on to clinch the Division title.

Soliman was 3-for-4 at the plate but did not factor into the scoring. Perez was 2-for-4 and Arias was 2-for-3 with a double and a RBI. Martinez, 1-for-3 had a pair of runs, while Santana (1-for-4) and Gil (0-for-4) had a run each.

The DSL Giants won the Boca Chica South Division by 6.5 games. The DSL Rangers 1 won the San Pedro division by less than half a game, .667 to .662 over the DSL Angels.

The DSL Mariners took the Santo Domingo North Division by 6.5 games, and the DSL Nationals1 won the Santo Domingo West Division by a whopping 25 games.

The first game of the playoffs is scheduled for Monday with the Twins hosting either the Mariners or the Giants at Baseball City and the wild card Angels take on the Rangers at Towers Baseball Academy.

(The DSL article says they host the Mariners, but then it goes on to say that the Nationals and the Mariners wait for the Winner of these two series for the second semifinal series B.) The games start, as always at 10:30 AM and I believe are a best of 3 game format.

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Lookout Landing Blog

GCL Red Sox edge GCL Twins, 3-2

GCL Red Sox 3 at GCL Twins 2

W: P. Ruiz (1-1, 8.68); L: M. Garcia (0-1, 4.44); SV: P. Perez (1)
HR: None.e

The GCL Red Sox edged out the GCL Twins Saturday during a morning game at the Lee County Sportsplex, picking up 2 runs in the six inning for a 3-2 win.

Kyle Snyder took the start on the mound for the Red Sox on a rehab assignment working 3 innings. Juan Sanchez singled off Snyder to lead off the bottom of the third, and moved to second on Bert Lara's ground out. Jon Goncalves flew out before a wild pitch by Snyder put Sanchez on 3rd. Aaron Hick's line drive to right drove in Sanchez to put the Twins on the board. T.J. was just mentioning earlier how Hicks never uses his speed to steal. Well, guess what T.J.? That's right, Hicks stole 2nd. Too bad you missed it. Sadly it would do the Twins little good as Danny Ortiz ground out, to end the inning.

Martire Garcia, who I've now decided to call Marty because I can't pronounce his name right otherwise, took the start for the Twins, working 5.1 innings. He'd walk Jeff Natale in the top of the 5th, and Natale would advance on a balk. Moko Moanaroa would ground out on what appeared to be a full count, although Red Sox fielding manager Dave Tomlin had some other ideas on the matter after the Umpire seemed to lose track of the balls and strikes. After some fussing about, Chih-Hsiang Huang would reach on a fielding error by Sanchez that allowed Natale to score, tying up the game.

Wilfred Pichardo singled on a ground bunt to get on board in the top of the sixth, but would be caught stealing 2nd. Andrew Frezza and Michael Almanzar then took singles off Garcia, and Roberto Feliz would be hit by a pitch. That would end it for Garcia, as Joe Testa came into the game to replace him. A wild pitch by Testa scored Frezza, and a sac-fly by Jeff Natale drove in Almanzar to put the Sox on top.

Garcia finished up allowing the 3 runs, 2 earned, on 4 hits and a pair of walks while striking out 2.

Peter Ruiz relieved Snyder, starting at the top of the 4th. He'd get Tyler Ladendorf out on strikes before Mike Gonzales smacked a line drive out to center. Josmil Pinto would reach on force attempt that failed due to a fielding error by Kenneth Roque. A wild pitch by Ruiz moved the pair and Javier Brown - who finally got to play after getting hit the face with a ball in the first game while sitting on the bench - ground out to score Gonzales. Sanchez would ground out however to end the inning leaving the tying run on base.

Testa would work 1.2 innings before giving way to Bruce Pugh who finished off the contest.

Gonzales and Brown were both 2-for-4, Gonzales with a run and Brown with a run scored. Hicks, Ortiz and Sachez all had singles, Hicks with a walk and a run scored, and Sanchez with a run, leaving Ortiz to become the one hit wonder of the game.

The boys take Sunday off. They will travel up to Bradenton on Monday for a visit to Pirate City. Game time is Noon.

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DSL Twins 1 at DSL Yankees2 6

W: W. Eusebio (3-4, 6.92); L: C. Carrillo (0-2, 8.66)
HR: DSL TWI: J. Mercedes (2).

The DSL Twins fell on the road to the DSL Yankees2, getting only 1 run on 2 hits.

Orlando Villaroel worked the first 4 innings for the Twins, allowing only 1 hit and a pair of walks to the Yankees while striking out 3 before giving way to Carlos Carrillo. The Venezuelan righty would allow six runs on 8 hits and walk while striking out 3 in the fifth and sixth innings.

The Twins would not get onto the board until the top of the 7th when Jean Carlos Mercedes hit his second home run of the season over the center field fence.

Jhonatan Arias had the only other hit for the Twins, a single making his the one hit wonder of the game. Five different Twins players walked with Xavier Gonzalez getting a pair of free passes, but the walks didn't help much without some hits to go along with it.

Much like the GCL counterparts, the DSL Twins will rest on Sunday. They host the DSL Diamondback/Reds for a game on Monday at 10:30 AM Dominican time.

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Seen around the ball park:



Wang-Yi Lin with his Twin brother Wang-Wei Lin



6'9" Swen Huijer with fellow Dutchman Tom Stuifbergen

Bunting Babies; GCL Twins down GCL Reds

GCL Reds 2 at GCL Twins 4

W: A. Lobanov (2-0, 1.93); L: M. Bohana (0-2, 4.76); SV: K. Mota (4)
HR: None.

In a moment of revelation, or, perhaps complete madness, while I was pumping quarters into the dryer at the laundryman, it occurred to me that in fact, Jake Mauer played for the Fort Myers Miracle under field manager Jose Marzan.

Which explained the very odd attempt at a suicide squeeze play that he tried in the bottom of the eighth inning.

It might even have worked...except that J.J. missed the bunt and Jakub, who had started running long before it became evident that J.J. was going to miss the bunt, found himself in between home plate and 3rd and the catcher had the ball.

So today's lesson is, if you're going to try for a suicide squeeze play, you should first make sure that the guy you are telling to bunt has had some success with it in the past.

So Jakub was our second out and Jake finally stopped called for bunts (yeah!) and J.J. hit a triple that drove in Jon Goncalves and the GCL Twins topped the GCL Reds, 4-2.

The game was marked by some great pitching on both sides. Martire Garcia took the start for the GCL Twins and struck out the first two batters he faced. He'd not let a man on base until Theodis Bowe singled in the top of the 4th.

Juan Rafael was equally as good for the Reds, working seven innings allowing 2 runs on 7 hits and a walk while fanning 3.

The Twins got on the board first, when Danny Ortiz singled and moved to 2nd on Tyler Ladendorf's ground out. Reggie Williams then sent a ground ball to center and the Ortiz blazed a trail to the plate. There would be a fight at the plate as Red's catcher Todd Waller got the ball, then lost it, and Ortiz had to scramble his way around to find the plate and touch it, but in the end, Ortiz slapped his hand on the plate and the ball rolled free. The Reds didn't like it, but there was not much they could do about it.

The Reds answered back though with Bowe's grounder to left getting him on base. He'd then steal 2nd. Huberto Sosa singled to drive in Bowe and would advance to 2nd on Juan Sanchez's throwing error, but that's as far as he'd go as Garcia got Conner to fly out to end the inning.

Cody Puckett took a walk off Garcia in the top of the sixth with two outs on the board. He'd then steal 2nd. Frank Pfister would reach on a throwing error by Ladendorf, which also put Puckett on 3d. Sosa's line drive to left plated Puckett to put the Reds on top.

That would finish it for Garcia, who left the game after allowing 2 runs, 1 earned, on 3 hits and walk while fanning 8 over six innings. It was an absolutely stellar performance by the Twins Dominican lefty.

The Twins tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh. With one out up, Sanchez doubled and Herbert Lara's line drive to center drove him in.

Mike Bohana replaced Rafael for the bottom of the eighth. Landendorf found a single (his batting average has now dipped to .196) before Williams went down on strikes (Mauer kept calling for a bunt). We got a bit of luck as Puckett got Jakub Hajtmar's hit to second, but he miss threw the ball to the bag, allowing Hajtmar to reach and sending Landendorf to 3rd. Mauer then opted to put Mike Gonzalez in as a pinch hitter for Hyun-wook Choi, who left the game 1-for-3. Gonzalez is so strong that if he gets some wood on the ball it's almost a guaranteed single and that would be the case this time, as he belted one up the first base line that Sosa couldn't handle, sending it out into right field to drive Landendorf home.

That's when they tried to pull the sacrifice squeeze play. With Hajtmar on 3rd, Mauer called for a bunt, but catcher Jae-Hyung Jang missed, causing Hajtmar to be stuck between 3rd and home. Mauer then send Jon Goncalves in to run for Gonzalez and let J.J. hit. The South Korean ripped a triple out to center to bring in Goncalves for the insurance run.

Andrey Lovanov worked two innings of relief, fanning 3, and Kelvin Mota came in allowing a single to Conner with 2 outs on the board, but he then got Efrain Contreras to pop out to end the contest.

The unofficial game time was 2 hours, 15 minutes and we were able to clear out of the Sportsplex before the afternoon rain showers showed up.

The GSL Twins take on the GCL Red Sox at the City of Palms Complex on Monday for a noon game. They then take Tuesday off. Before returning home on Wednesday to face the GCL Pirates.

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