News
Twins ride Slowey's dominance to win
Starter cruises into ninth; Kubel bashes pair of homers
By Kelly Thesier / MLB.com
04/26/09 12:15 AM ET
CLEVELAND -- With a very young and relatively inexperienced rotation last season, the Twins' coaching staff didn't want to take many risks by stretching its starters' pitch counts far beyond 100 pitches. But one of the goals heading into the 2009 season was to give those starters a bit more breathing room. Kevin Slowey was given the perfect example of that longer leash on Saturday night, when, after throwing 106 pitches through eight scoreless innings against the Indians, the right-hander was sent back out for the ninth. Slowey's attempt for a third career shutout wasn't successful after he gave up three straight hits in the ninth and was relieved by Luis Ayala, who got out of the jam with only one run scoring. But it didn't take away from his gem of a performance -- one run allowed on eight hits over eight-plus innings while throwing 114 pitches in the Twins' 7-1 victory over the Indians at Progressive Field. "After an easy eighth, you have to let him take a shot at it," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of the shutout. "We said we are going to stretch these guys out. I think it had been seven days since his last start, and he's got six days before his next one. It's an opportune time to let these guys stretch out if they can do that. ... It didn't work out, they rolled some balls through and got some hits. But you want these guys to understand that we are not afraid to do that." After getting off to a bit of a rocky start in his first two outings of the season, allowing five runs in each start, Slowey appeared to have settled in during his previous start against the Angels last Saturday. He held the Angels to two runs over seven innings. But while that start was solid, this one seemed more like a work of art. It was an outing in which Slowey managed to keep hitters off balance by locating his fastball on the inner and outer half of the plate, while mixing in his breaking pitches in almost any count. "I can't remember seeing him a whole lot better than that," catcher Mike Redmond said of Slowey. "You could just see it in his face that he was locked in. It's fun to catch guys like that." With six days of rest between his starts, Slowey said he worked on a few more things, such as trying to throw fewer pitches for strikes, something that sounds a little strange for a command pitcher. But by making some of his "misses" a little less hittable, the Twins believe it should help Slowey limit his troubles on the mound. He still managed to throw 84 of his 114 pitches for strikes on Saturday, but Slowey said that some of those were balls put into play that likely would not have been called strikes had the hitters not swung at them. "That's really the goal for us is to be able to throw pitches that look like strikes and encourage hitters to swing when it's not the pitch that he can hit," Slowey said. For the second time in four starts this season, Slowey (3-0) did not walk a single batter, and he struck out a season-high seven in the contest. Slowey's gem of a performance also came in front of more than 20 family and friends, including his mom and dad, who drove in from nearby Pittsburgh, the starter's hometown. The Minnesota right-hander had the advantage of working with a lead from the very first pitch that he threw, after the Twins scored one run off Indians starter Carl Pavano in the first. Minnesota took a 1-0 lead when Alexi Casilla singled to center, stole second base and scored on Justin Morneau's RBI single to right field. The club had much more success against Pavano than it did in his only previous career start against Minnesota back on April 9, 2007, when he was still with the Yankees. Pavano had limited the Twins to just two runs over seven innings to pick up the win in that start, but on Saturday night, they tagged him for five runs on 11 hits over five-plus innings. The Twins were able to slowly wear down Pavano over the course of his outing. Pavano (0-3) managed to keep it a one-run game until the fourth, when he gave up four straight hits to start the inning, including RBI singles to Delmon Young and Redmond. From there, the Twins kept tacking onto their lead. Jason Kubel belted his third home run of the season in the fifth inning, a one-out solo shot to right field. It was one of two dingers on the day for the Twins' designated hitter, giving him his third career multihomer game. The second one came when Kubel paired with Joe Crede to hit back-to-back solo homers off Masa Kobayashi in the ninth inning. It was the first time the Twins have hit back-to-back home runs this season. "Kubel can hit, we saw that in spring," Gardenhire said. "He had a good spring. He's confident. I think he feels real comfortable right now, and he's showing it out on the field." Seeing his club put together 15 hits in the contest was nice, but Gardenhire has been more concerned about his starters getting back on track after a rough start to the year. With Slowey delivering his second straight solid start, the Twins have now watched three of their five starting pitchers return to their 2008 form. The only two starters who are still looking to get righted are Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano, the two most experienced members of the staff. "You get those two guys going in their next starts and these guys continue what they're doing and it should be fun," Gardenhire said. "We said that our starting staff should be strong. We believe that they are all going to be very good for us this year. Performances like [Slowey's] tonight make you say, 'Hey they can do some things.'"Kelly Thesier is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
