MINNEAPOLIS_The Minnesota Twins' strategy-by-necessity of starting three consecutive rookie pitchers against the defending American League champions is turning out about as well as could have been reasonably expected. Meaning, not well at all.
Adam Wilk, making his fifth career major league start, fared even worse than Nik Turley one night earlier, surrendering six runs, eight hits and three walks while recording only 10 outs as the Twins dropped a 9-3 decision to the Cleveland Indians in the first game of a split doubleheader Saturday.
Pitching the nightcap for the Twins: Adalberto Mejia, making his ninth career start. That game was delayed 75 minutes by rain in the fifth inning, and Cleveland _ behind four home runs _ eventually won 6-2 to take over the AL Central lead and improve to 6-0 at Target Field this year.
Now 14-23 at home, the Twins fell out of first place for the first time since May 9. They will try to avoid a four-game sweep Sunday with Kyle Gibson on the mound against Trevor Bauer.
"We kind of anticipated having some fun this series, and competing, and it hasn't really worked out," Twins manager Paul Molitor said between games. "Our pitching hasn't really given us much of a chance."
Wilk, called up from Class AAA Rochester before the game and designated for assignment immediately after it, was a best-of-bad-options choice for the Twins, considering he had given up six runs in 12 innings for the Red Wings. But the Twins ultimately decided that his big-league experience, limited as it was, made him a better risk than some younger options.
"We don't have a lot of experienced options, at least big-time experience, but he's got a little bit," Molitor said. "Cleveland's hot right now. A lot of their guys are swinging well from the righthand side, I get that. But of all the people we could consider, his name kept coming up."
The Indians wasted no time revealing the flaw in that logic. After two quick outs, Jose Ramirez, the third batter of the game, smashed a long homer to right field, and Wilk immediately began pitching more tentatively, walking two of the next three hitters, then giving up a two-run single to Bradley Zimmer.
"We've done this more common as of late _ (giving up) two-out rallies and still putting up crooked numbers," Molitor said. "They can really hurt you."
They all but ended this game early. Wilk threw 37 pitches in the first inning, passed 60 in the second, and wound up throwing 92 in his 31/3-inning stint. His day ended with he gave up a single and two doubles in the space of four batters to open the fourth inning, the last a Ramirez double that drove him two more runs.
Alex Wimmers, called up for a day to serve as the Twins' 26th man, relieved Wilk, and limited Cleveland to just one run, on Ramirez's second homer of the game. But he recorded only five outs while running his pitch count to 37, forcing Molitor to sacrifice more of the bullpen than he had hoped. "We had to burn through a few guys," he said, including Buddy Boshers for 36 pitches and Matt Belisle for 27.
In Game 2, the Twins got 42/3 innings from Mejia when the game went into a rain delay. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning but _ handed a 1-0 lead on Joe Mauer's two-out RBI double in the third _ Mejia then gave up home runs to Austin Jackson and Lonnie Chisenhall in the fourth as Cleveland went ahead 2-1.
Tyler Duffey finished off the fifth inning for Mejia after the delay, but in the sixth the Twins righthander gave up a walk, a bunt single and Chisenhall's second homer of the game. Francisco Lindor added a home run off Alan Busenitz in the righthander's major league debut, and the Twins only managed four hits in all against five Cleveland pitchers.
