Minnesota Twins shortstop Kaelen Culpepper made an unforgettable big-league debut on Friday when he homered for his first hit.
One day later, Culpepper will try for a quality encore performance.
The Twins will go for their third win in a row when they visit the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday evening.
Minnesota rallied for an 8-6 victory in Friday’s series opener, and the 23-year-old Culpepper played a key role.
One day after he was promoted from Triple-A St. Paul, he ripped a solo home run in his second at-bat, trimming Minnesota’s deficit to 4-3 in the fourth inning.
The Twins went on to tally two runs in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to complete the scoring.
Culpepper, a highly touted prospect, trained with Twins players during the offseason. He said that experience and his time in spring training helped him gain confidence for his eventual call-up.
“The biggest thing I learned was that they’re also human,” said Culpepper, whom the Twins selected in the first round (No. 21 overall) out of Kansas State in 2024.
“They’re pretty normal. Once you get to know them, they work their butts off, for sure. They work really hard. They’re really good at what they do, and I feel like I got comfortable around them.”
The Twins could get comfortable having Culpepper in the lineup.
Manager Derek Shelton said he was thrilled to have a high-end prospect join the roster, but he also did not want to make it seem as if Culpepper would fix every team issue on offense.
“I don’t want to look at it that way because I don’t want any extra pressure added to Kaelen,” Shelton said. “It’s just a situation where we thought he was ready to come up. We thought it was a good time for our team. …
“He’s worked harder. He’s become a better defender. This is a kid that has some tools. It’s why he’s so highly touted. … He’s playing well, so we felt it was the right time to be able to bring him to the big leagues.”
Milwaukee will try to spoil the good vibes for Culpepper and the rest of his Twins teammates on Saturday.
The Brewers had a three-game winning streak snapped on Friday and leads the National League Central by 4 1/2 games over the second-place Chicago Cubs.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy said he will look for his players to put a narrow loss behind them.
“They hit him hard,” Murphy said of his starter, rookie left-hander Shane Drohan. “You give up 10 hits or whatever he gave up, that’s unusual. A couple homers. He missed some spots.”
Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser (3-4, 4.48 ERA) will try to help his team even the series. This will be his 13th start of the season and the 20th start of his career.
Gasser has faced the Twins once in his career, receiving a no-decision after allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits in four innings in his team’s 5-4 loss on May 17. He walked two and struck out three.
Minnesota will counter with right-hander Taj Bradley (9-4, 3.69 ERA), who has 141 strikeouts in 126 2/3 innings this season.
Bradley has made one career start against Milwaukee, drawing a no-decision after allowing two runs on four hits in six innings in May of last season. He walked one and fanned five while pitching for Tampa Bay, which won 3-2.
–Field Level Media
