The one thing I took away from the Charlotte series was the success of the top and bottom of the Miracle lineup.  Bottom order players Angel Morales, Dan Rohlfing, and Jhonathan Goncalves in particular set the table for the top of the order – which took advantage of their opportunities.  Estarlin De Los Santos and Brian Dozier came through with clutch two-out hits when the team needed it several times.

De Los Santos was 5-14 with 4 RBI in the series, Dozier was 6-12 with 5 RBI, Goncalves was 4-10 with an RBI, and Morales was 4-9 with an RBI (only struck out once — struck out 13 times in 25 previous at-bats).

The solid offensive series boosted whats has been a hot June for the lineup. A big reason has been those parts of the batting order.  Fort Myers is hitting .264 in June (compare that .223 in April and .247 in May)

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Speaking of Brian Dozier, he has been “bulldoziering” pitching during the last two weeks.  Entering the Palm Beach series exactly two weeks ago, Dozier’s batting average was hanging just above .200.  That included an 0-for-26 slump.  Flash forward two weeks, and he’s hitting .306.  Dozier busted out of the slump with a couple big RBI knocks in the Palm Beach series, and has carried that momentum to bat exactly .500 (21-42) in his last 10 games.  During the 10 game stretch he’s had two four-hit games, two three-hit games, and two multi-RBI games.  Oh, and he hit not only his first home run of the 2010 season, he notched his first professional home run in the Twins system since being drafted last year out of Southern Miss.

While I had some downtime at the ballpark this weekend, I had to chance to talk to one of the NL scouts.  One player that I brought up during our conversation was Dozier.  I remarked how impressive I thought his turnaround was following the 0-for-26 slump, and his defensive play in the series at third (a position he’s only played a handful of times in his career), and he said, “you know, there’s a term that players, coaches, and broadcaster’s use for a guy like him.  He’s a true baseball player.”  As simple as that sounds, that’s about as good of a compliment as you can get.  Someone who plays the game the right way.

Earlier this season at one of the hotel’s on the road, I had a chance to talk to Miracle catcher Dan Rohlfing, and one thing he brought up was Dozier.  This was way before Dozier was called up.  He mentioned about his playing experience with Brian in Elizabethton (rookie) and he said that he is just the type of guy you want on the field with you.  He remarked how smart of a baseball player he was.

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I also asked the same NL scout about what he had thought about Miracle starting pitcher’s Bruce Pugh and Bobby Lanigan.  He was impressed.  He said he really liked them both.  When they were on the DL, scouts would come up to me ask me all the time about them and I always would say they were two guys they really needed to see.  One AL scout was so bummed he didn’t get to see them that he said he might have to make a return trip back to Florida just to check them out.

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One last player I also wanted his opinion on was newly called up top-10 Twins prospect Angel Morales.  He referred to him as being very “crude”.  No, not because of his personality.  Angel possesses many tools that scouts look for in a prospect.  He is very naturally gifted.  But as a 20-year-old, he still has many things to improve on.  What he means by “crude” is that he is very “raw” and “unrefined”.  He mentioned his swing which he says has some mechanical flaws.  But there is no ignoring some of the physical gifts that he possesses including incredibly quick hands.

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Now on to the Bradenton game.  I’ll say this…in my lifetime I would have to rank it pretty high as far as a game that just absolutely made me sick.  Fort Myers watched a 5-0 advantage in the eighth-inning disappear within a matter of minutes.  The Marauders tagged new Miracle reliever Bart Carter for three runs, and then got the final two off of Steve Blevins.  With the game tied 5-5 in the ninth, Nate Hanson blasted a solo home run to put Fort Myers up a run.  Nick Romero then tripled with one out, but was left on the bases.  When we left that run on, I just didn’t feel good about the situation.

Up 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth, my worries about the slim lead came to fruition, and the Marauders scored two in the inning to win 7-6.  To make matters worse, the Miracle had seen this happen just a week prior.  They lost a game last weekend to Charlotte where Hanson hit a home run in the top of the 12th inning, and the team could not hold a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 12th – losing 3-2.

Blevins had pitched 1.2 innings the night before and recorded the save.  He was pitching again on about 16 hours of rest.  Why were the Miracle put in this situation?  The team had already played two double-headers, and two extra-innings games (including that game in Charlotte) within the span of 10 days.  But that’s not all.  The Twins also decided to promote reliever Billy Bullock to AA, and send relievers Andrei Lobanov and Jose Gonzalez to Elizabethton (Rookie).  Even though Lobanov and Gonzalez more than proved they were ready to pitch in the FSL, the Twins thought it would be best to send them down to E-Town to continue their development.  I’m in no position to argue with the Twins decision to make that move, but the move nonetheless came at a very bad time for Fort Myers.  So Jake Mauer’s hands were tied and he had to send out Carter (signed less than two weeks ago, drafted in the 39th round of the 2010 draft) and Blevins for the second straight day.

They guy I felt the worst for yesterday was Blevins.  I can only imagine how hard it would be to pitch the day after pitching a multi-inning save the night before.  I asked Mauer who he would have gone to if the game yesterday when to extras.  He said he would have had to use a position player (he said Nate Hanson has done it before, or maybe even Dozier who he said he thought could thrown downhill).  What a sight that would have been.

As we were riding back home on the bus ride back to Fort Myers, I couldn’t get the game out of my head.  What a missed golden opportunity.  The Miracle would have started the second half 4-0 (five straight overall wins), and put Bradenton at 1-3.  Not to mention it would have been just the second win at McKechnie Field in Bradenton in 7 tries.  After lamenting the loss for awhile, I had to remind myself to put the loss into perspective.  Sometimes I forget that the minor leagues isn’t always about winning and losing – the goal is to develop players.  And the proper development of the players, and the system, can sometimes cost a team (or teams) a few losses when maybe it shouldn’t.  That’s not to say the Twins don’t care about their minor league teams winning, and developing winning attitudes.  They do.

My only hope is that this one doesn’t linger with the team.  I think how they bounce back from a tough loss like that will be an interesting test as to how this team will play in the second half.  Should be interesting to watch…..