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Mick Abel Deals in Rehab Start, Saints Bash 4 Homers Against Verlander

Abel looked sharp in his first minor-league rehab outing on Wednesday.
Will Ragatz|
Mick Abel
Mick Abel | MiLB.TV

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Minnesota Twins

Mick Abel looked excellent over three innings in his first minor-league rehab outing, the Saints crushed four home runs off of future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, and St. Paul cruised to a 12-1 win over the Toledo Mud Hens on Wednesday night.

This was a big step in the right direction for Abel, who hasn't pitched for the Twins since mid-April due to elbow inflammation and a subsequent setback with his triceps. He threw 37 pitches in a simulated game last week and progressed to 47 pitches in this one.

Abel allowed a leadoff single, but came back to strike out two batters on sweepers in the first inning. He allowed another hit in the second (although it was a ball Kyler Fedko could've caught in center field) and picked up two more strikeouts. In total, Abel went three scoreless innings with two hits, no walks, and five Ks. His fastball averaged 96.3 miles per hour and touched 97.9. He pounded the zone with the heater and generated six whiffs on 24 offspeed pitches.

Abel will need at least one more rehab start and quite possibly a couple more to keep stretching out his pitch count, but he appears on track to be back in the Twins' rotation before June ends.

Meanwhile, even Hall of Famers can get roughed up by a Saints lineup that has been dominant all year. No team in baseball, either MLB or the minors, has hit more home runs this season than St. Paul, and the 43-year-old Verlander was no match for their power.

To open up the scoring, Aaron Sabato launched a hanging slider in the second inning for his 12th of the season. Sabato had a three-hit, four-RBI night and raised his season OPS to a sterling .987.

In the third inning, Fedko pounded another Verlander breaking ball to left-center for his team-leading 15th homer of the season. He had two hits and two walks and has a remarkable .983 OPS of his own.

And in the top of the sixth, after a couple effective innings from Verlander, Matt Wallner and Gabriel Gonzalez delivered back-to-back bombs. Wallner's sixth with the Saints went 434 feet out to right. Gonzalez ripped his down the left-field line with an exit velocity just over 107. Wallner has been crushing for the Saints and has an .886 OPS. Gonzalez has been a bit cold this year but came through with three hits on Wednesday.

As the Saints noted, this was just the sixth time Verlander has ever allowed four home runs in a game.

St. Paul added six runs in the seventh inning to blow the game open. Three of those were charged to another rehabbing HOFer in Kenley Jansen, who is third in MLB history in saves.

It's been a truly remarkable offensive season so far for the Saints, even with Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and Alan Roden missing a big chunk of time to injury. The Twins may want to start dipping into that talent pool. Kaelen Culpepper is knocking on the door of a promotion, Wallner could wind up back in the big leagues at some point soon, and the production of guys like Sabato and Fedko is impossible to ignore.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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