The Twins lost two pitchers to injury, and then the ballgame on Friday.
A day after putting two of their lineup mainstays — Byron Buxton and Mitch Garver — on the injured list, the Twins saw starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi and reliever Zack Littell exit Friday night’s game with injuries in their 7-2 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
While early indications are that both appear to have avoided very serious issues, physical health has become a mounting problem in the past few days for the Twins, who have seen their lead in the division tighten to half a game over Cleveland and a game over the White Sox.
With no outs in the fourth inning, Royals left fielder Alex Gordon rocketed a ball at 103.2 mph off the bat straight back at Odorizzi. The ball hit the righty in his midsection and he immediately dropped to his hands and knees on the mound. It was Odorizzi’s last pitch of the night, as he walked off with head trainer Michael Salazar after the play.
Odorizzi has a bruised abdomen, and he said the play knocked the wind out of him. He needed to be helped into and out of a chair for his post-game interview, but was thankful to have avoided anything more serious.
“It could have been much worse,” Odorizzi said. “I saw the replay and it missed my elbow by a couple inches so I think all things considered, I feel pretty lucky to miss that.”
Prior to his departure, Odorizzi had fallen behind in the first inning, surrendering four runs to the Royals (11-15) before he recorded his first out of the night.
One of those runs scored on a pop up a little behind first base that fell in between first baseman Miguel Sano and second baseman Ildemaro Vargas. The other three came around to score on a Jorge Soler home run. The four runs put the Twins (17-10) in a hole they would never recover from.
“In this type of year, it’s very tough just because I got a late start and I’ve had three games against the same team. … There wasn’t a lot to trick them with much today,” Odorizzi said. “I used everything I had. I’m just trying to execute pitches and it is what it is.”
The Twins bright spot in the game came from three nearly-pristine innings from rookie Jorge Alcala, who came in after Odorizzi’s departure. Though Alcala did walk in a run on four pitches with the bases loaded — the run was charged to Odorizzi — he settled in well.
Alcala came back to strike out the next two batters, the beginning of a stretch where he struck out six of seven hitters he faced.
“He’s really finding himself. Every outing, he’s going out there and picking something different out and figuring it out,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “…He did a fantastic job for us. He picked us up in a tough moment.”
Littell, who gave up a two-run home run earlier in the seventh inning to Hunter Dozier, followed Alcala into the game and eventually left the game with with trainer Masa Abe, grimacing after delivering a pitch to Soler.
Baldelli said he did not believe Littell’s elbow issue was serious, but he would continue to get checked out. He said Littell was dealing with “inflammation, tendinitis-type soreness.”
The injuries are hitting hard for a team that is already working without both Buxton and Garver, along with third baseman Josh Donaldson, their major offseason acquisition. Starter Homer Bailey has been sidelined for all of August, and reliever Cody Stashak is also dealing with an injury of his own. Luis Arraez, while not on the injured list, has been held out of action the past few days with a knee issue.
“We go through everything together. … We’ve had a couple of tough days physically. You go through these things every season. We saw this a couple days ago or yesterday and we’re seeing it again today,” Baldelli said. “It’s something that in baseball and in sports and in life, you’re going to have tough times. We have the kind of group that bands together and gets through things well.”
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