The Minnesota Twins never quite recovered from a poor start to the season, but manager Rocco Baldelli is still paying close attention to how they finish.
That begins with young starting pitchers such as right-hander Zebby Matthews, whom Baldelli hopes will continue making strides when he takes the mound against the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday in Anaheim, Calif.
Matthews (4-4, 4.73 ERA) didn’t get a decision his last time out for the Twins (64-80), but the 25-year-old still produced excellent results on Wednesday, limiting the Chicago White Sox to one run and three hits over six innings in Minnesota’s 4-3 loss.
He departed with a 3-1 lead, but the bullpen surrendered three runs in the ninth for a 4-3 loss.
“Finishing a major league season, which is a long year, on a strong, positive note, continually taking the ball and showing up and doing it, is a real thing,” Baldelli said. “You have to conquer that in some way. You’ve got to come out and succeed towards the end of the year.
“There’s a physical element to it, there’s a mental side of it. Before you can know you can do it, you’ve got to go out there and do it. Zebby is doing that now.”
The only run Matthews yielded to the White Sox last week came on a leadoff home run by Edgar Quero in the second inning.
“I kind of just told myself out there, ‘Once we got two outs, just finish the inning. Keep attacking,'” Matthews said. “A lot of times I think, with two outs, you can kind of get a little comfortable out there. Try to just keep attacking hitters, keep them on their toes as best as possible, and get the team back in the dugout.”
Matthews started against the Angels last Sept. 11 and allowed two runs and five hits in 3 1/3 innings during a no-decision in Minneapolis.
The Angels have also seen their postseason hopes vanish in the second half of the season, and they played like it on Monday. They committed a season-high four errors and misplayed another fly ball that led to three runs in the 12-3 loss.
“You can’t expect a pitcher to continuously overcome those mistakes,” Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “A couple of them here and there, sure, but not when it becomes repetitive like that. That was one of our worst games, I thought, defensively, throughout the course of this season.”
The Angels (67-77) moved usual leadoff hitter Zach Neto to the No. 3 spot in the batting order for the first time this season. He singled his first time up and stole second, but he was picked off first after getting hit by a pitch his second time up and went hitless in his last two at-bats.
He also committed one of the Angels’ errors.
Jo Adell, who had homered in five of his previous seven games for Los Angeles to give him 35 on the season, was a late scratch on Monday because of vertigo. Matthew Lugo took his place in right field and misplayed a high fly ball in right in the ninth, allowing two runs to score and setting up another.
The Angels will try to get back on track behind veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks, who is looking for his first win since July 27. He is 0-2 with a 5.05 ERA in his past seven outings.
Hendricks (6-9, 4.81 ERA) has made five starts against the Twins in his career, going 1-4 with a 5.86 ERA. He yielded seven runs on three hits and five walks in a season-low three-plus innings on April 25 in Minneapolis.
–Field Level Media
