MINNEAPOLIS _ Meet Adalberto Mejia, the Twins new stopper.
As the Twins rotation has sputtered of late _ that includes both All-Star Ervin Santana and talented youngster Jose Berrios _ Mejia has been the best thing going.
Mejia was able to pitch seven innings on Monday as the Twins returned for a seven-game homestand going into the All-Star break with a 9-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels at Target Field. Joe Mauer and Max Kepler homered as the Twins beat the Angels for the fourth time in five meetings this season.
Seven innings, you scoff. The game has changed. The Twins rotation has been in flux. Seven innings is manna from heaven for their beleaguered and tortured group.
Twins manager Paul Molitor knows it. He sent Mejia out for the seventh inning having thrown 90 pitches in what was not a smooth trip. Luis Valbuena greeted him with a first pitch home run, but Mejia got the next three outs.
Mejia, in seven innings, gave up three runs on nine hits and a walk with five strikeouts. The seven-inning outing is the longest by a Twins starter since Berrios went eight innings against the White Sox on June 21 _ 13 games ago. If they want to play meaningful games late in the second half of the season, the Twins need their starters to have more outings like Monday.
Joe Mauer, batting leadoff after Brian Dozier was scratched, shook hands with Gene Glynn after his second-inning home run gave the Twins a 3-0 lead.
The Twins gave Mejia 3-0 lead in the second inning by working over former Twin Alex Meyer. With runners on first and third, Meyer was called for a balk, allowing a run to score. Meyer's next pitch was hammered by Mauer into the bullpens in left center for a two-run homer and 3-0 lead.
Kepler hit an RBI double in the third for his first of four hits before Los Angeles made it 4-2 on Andrelton Simmons' two-run single. Kepler added a solo homer in the fifth as the Twins took a 5-2 lead.
Miguel Sano, who will join Santana in Miami for the All-Star Game, added a two-run double in the sixth to give the Twins a 7-2 lead.
The Angels made things interesting when Martin Maldonado hit a two-run homer off Tyler Duffey in the eighth. But the Twins got those runs back in the bottom of the inning off David Hernandez on three singles and two wild pitches, all coming with two out.
Mejia showed a lot of the qualities that attracted the Twins interest last July, when they sent All-Star infielder Eduardo Nunez to San Francisco in exchange for the Dominican left-hander. Mejia has a fastball in the low 90s and a good changeup to throw hitters' timing off. He has lacked the precision to finish off hitters, and often has had to labor through some at-bats.
For instance, Mejia retired the side in order in the third inning _ but he needed 18 pitches to do. What he's probably shooting for something like the fifth, when he needed 11 pitches to get out of the inning.
By hey, who can nitpick here? Mejia tried to get the Twins homestand off to a winning start as they look to finish strong before the All-Star break. He won his third consecutive start, coming off scoreless outings in victories at Cleveland and Boston.
But Mejia's next hurdle remains the same. He has to learn to economize his pitches so he can pitch deeper into games. He has the stuff to do it. He even reached back in the sixth inning to throw a 97 miles per hour fastball to Simmons, who singled to right.
It didn't work out there, but Mejia is trying to figure things out.
