Behind hot hitting from Royce Lewis, Travis Blankenhorn and Jose Miranda, the Fort Myers Miracle, the Class A Advanced affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, capped a dominant run through the Florida State League playoffs with an 8-5 win over the Daytona Tortugas in Game 4 of the Florida State League Finals on Monday night. The title is the Miracle's first since 2014.
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Though a pair of errors in the second inning plated three unearned runs for the Tortugas, an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, the Miracle answered with a five-run third behind RBI singles from Blankenhorn (Twins No. 18 prospect) and Miranda (Twins No. 29), followed by a three-run homer from Ryan Costello. A leadoff double by Twins No. 2 prospect Alex Kirilloff (No. 30 overall) sparked a three-run rally in the fifth that gave Fort Myers all the insurance runs it would need.
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Lewis, the Twins' No. 1 prospect (No. 10 overall), went 1-for-4 with a run in the clinching victory. The 19-year-old shortstop, the No. 1 selection in the 2017 MLB Draft, hit safely in every game of the series. While he was 5-for-17 in the four games, three of those hits were homers, and he drove in five runs.
Miranda, the 20-year-old third baseman, also collected hits in every game, including two-hit games in each of the first three contests, to wrap up the series with three doubles and a homer. Blankenhorn led all hitters with a .538 average following a pair of three-hit games.
Despite the series loss for the Tortugas, catcher Tyler Stephenson, the Reds' No. 6 prospect and former first-round Draft selection, went 5-for-11 with a homer, a double and four walks as his .455 average led Daytona hitters in the series.
It was the second title won by the Miracle as part of the Twins organization, and the seventh overall for the club -- it won five championships in the 1960s and '70s while affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles.