Bowen returns to Cats

NEW BRITAIN -- Rob Bowen, the Minnesota Twins backup catcher since the first week of the season, is returning to the New Britain Rock Cats to replace the injured Bryan Kennedy.

Bowen, 23, was with the Rock Cats at their preseason Welcome to New Britain dinner at the Elks Club Lodge April 7, but was promoted later that night to replace Joe Mauer. Mauer, the Minor League Player of the Year with the Rock Cats last season, tore cartilage in his knee that required arthroscopic surgery.

With Mauer and Matthew LeCroy (strained oblique muscle) out of action, Bowen was tabbed to back up the Twins’ lone healthy backstop - free-agent acquisition Henry Blanco. Bowen played sparingly, hitting .214 (3-for-14) with a homer and two RBI in six games.

The homer - his first in the majors - came the day after his recall in a ninth-inning pinch-hitting role against Detroit.

Bowen played briefly with the Twins at the end of last season. He was called up from Triple-A Rochester Aug. 20 and got his first major-league hit at Detroit Sept. 26. It was his lone hit in 10 at-bats over seven games.

Bowen, a 6-foot-3, 216-pound native of Bedford, Texas, struggled through a difficult season in 2002, hitting under .200 at two Class-A stops. He broke out with the Rock Cats at the beginning of last season, hitting .306 with 13 doubles, a homer and 16 RBI in 42 games.

Kennedy, 25, has been placed on the disabled list with a left knee injury suffered Sunday after a home-plate collision in Binghamton.

"He tried to block the plate without the ball, which was gutsy, but ball was up the line and he got strung out," Rock Cats manager Stan Cliburn said.

Team officials fear that his ACL may be torn. Kennedy was hitting .189 with no homers and two RBI in 15 games as a backup to Gabby Torres.

Cliburn, disappointed with Torres’ performance thus far, feels Bowen can energize his squad. He said Torres, 26, reported overweight to spring training, which resulted in a nagging hamstring injury. Torres’ pitch selection, Cliburn said, is another problem.

"I haven’t been real happy with the way things have gone behind the plate," he said. "Gabby’s been a back-up here. Now he’s gotten more playing time and has developed some bad habits. I’m not happy with his pitch-calling. He’s been indecisive and it’s cost us runs in the middle innings.

"Bowen just caught a couple games in Oakland and brings major league experience to the lineup."

Kennedy, the younger brother of Anaheim Angels infielder Adam Kennedy, was ticketed for Class A Fort Myers out of spring training when Mauer’s injury created the ripple that carried him to New Britain.

HELLING STAYS:

Helling, recuperating from a fractured right fibula, was sharp in his first outing for the Rock Cats April 4 but struggled in Sunday’s loss to Binghamton. He flew to Minnesota to spend a few days with the big-league club, but will be back for Saturday’s 6:35 p.m. encounter.

"If he doesn’t pitch well, he can be here for who knows how long," Cliburn said.

Twins general manager Terry Ryan and minor league director Jim Rantz will be in town this weekend to get a first-hand look at the seven-year veteran, who the Twins signed as a free agent in January.