Monday night in Los Angeles, the Minnesota Twins found themselves in a pivotal moment that revealed not just a decision, but a departure from the philosophy they’ve followed all season. Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, manager Rocco Baldelli made a surprising call. He sent rookie starter David Festa back out to the mound to face the most dangerous part of the Dodgers lineup for a third time. Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, and Freddie Freeman were due. All three are elite hitters. Two are left-handed. All are capable of punishing even the slightest mistake. Against that trio, in that situation, on the road, in a critical game, the odds were not just stacked against Festa; they were practically daring the Twins to blink.
What followed played out almost exactly as expected. Festa somehow managed to strike out Ohtani to open the inning, a result that felt more like a gift than a plan. But any luck quickly vanished. Smith, who had already homered off Festa earlier in the game, crushed another one over the wall to give the Dodgers a 4-1 lead. Next came Freeman, who drilled a double to keep the inning going. Only then did Baldelli make the move to the bullpen. By then, the damage was done.
What made the decision so baffling was how starkly it contrasted with how the Twins have handled their young starting pitchers all year. From the very beginning of the season, the Twins have made a point to shield their starters, especially the young ones, from facing opposing lineups for the third time. We’ve seen it with Simeon Woods Richardson almost weekly. Festa, too, has been managed carefully. Before last night, he had faced just 18 batters all season for a third time in a game. And yet, in one of the most hostile environments in baseball, against perhaps the best offensive lineup in the league, with two of the three hitters being left-handed, and two of them already having homered off of him, Festa was left in.
The decision is even more puzzling when viewed in the broader context of where the Twins are in the season. This current stretch leading up to the trade deadline could determine the entire course of the franchise’s summer. A strong showing might convince the front office to invest in the roster, or at least hold firm. A slump might signal that it’s time to sell. Every game carries added weight right now. Every decision matters just a little bit more. That was certainly how Baldelli went on to manage Tuesday night. This was a time to be bold and proactive. Instead, the Twins stayed passive. They gambled on a young starter surviving a near-impossible situation, and they paid the price.
It wasn’t even a matter of necessity. The bullpen was in a good spot. Thanks to a comfortable win Sunday in Colorado, only Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax pitched the day before, and both of them were coming off four full days of rest. The relievers were ready. There was no shortage of arms, no strain on the staff. There was a clear opportunity to go to the pen early and give the team a real chance to claw back into the game.
Here’s a look at how the bullpen usage was lined up heading into Monday night’s game:
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN
TOT
Topa
0
0
17
16
0
33
Sands
0
0
22
0
0
22
Misiewicz
0
0
0
21
0
21
Durán
0
0
0
0
16
16
Coulombe
0
0
0
12
0
12
Stewart
0
0
0
9
0
9
Jax
0
0
0
0
8
8
Varland
0
0
0
0
0
0
Yes, the offense struggled again. The Twins only scored two runs on the night. Even if the bullpen had shut the Dodgers down the rest of the way, there’s a good chance the bats wouldn’t have come through. That has been a consistent theme for much of the season. But poor offensive output doesn’t excuse poor pitching decisions. What the Twins had control over was who pitched that sixth inning, and they chose to keep Festa in. It was out of character for this staff. It didn’t align with the data or the matchups.
The one way in which the move makes sense, actually, is the one we should consider a bit more deeply. Festa was slotted fourth in the team’s rotation coming out of the All-Star break; Woods Richardson was set to pitch fifth. Baldelli and the staff might have wanted to get an extra inning from a starter pitching relatively well, knowing they would need to be proactive with Woods Richardson and go to the pen early Tuesday night. (That, of course, is exactly how it turned out.)
If that’s the case, though, doesn’t it follow that having Festa and Woods Richardson pitch back-to-back (especially against the Dodgers, when they had the available alternative of having one face the lighter-hitting Rockies instead) is an error? Of course, the team doesn’t have as many sponges for innings as they’d like to, until Pablo López and Bailey Ober return, and of Woods Richardson, Festa and Zebby Matthews, two have to work on consecutive days at some point. Maybe the team wanted to shield the bullpen, in a game they were already losing, but again, that just highlights the dire straits they’re in as a team.
Whether this was a one-time misjudgment or a signal of a shift in thinking remains to be seen. What’s clear is that in a critical game, against a juggernaut opponent, with the season tilting toward a defining moment, the Twins veered off course. And it cost them.
What do you think? Was Baldelli justified in sticking with Festa, or was this a misstep in a must-win game? Let us know in the comments.