Minnesota Twins: Jake Odorizzi wants Twins fans to relax

After chucking 5 2/3 scoreless innings on Saturday, Minnesota Twins starter Jake Odorizzi wants fans to know everything will be alright.

The Minnesota Twins picked up a much-needed victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night as they snapped a four-game losing streak. With several Twins going on the injured list and the starting rotation turning in uneven performances, the panic level of Twins fans has been at a season-high level as the Indians have taken what was an 11 1/2 game lead in the division to a tie entering Saturday’s game.

As Twins fans’ blood pressure rose along with Jake Odorizzi‘s pitch count through the first three innings, the Twins’ starter would turn things around and throw 5 2/3 scoreless innings to help lead the Twins to the 4-1 victory. After the game, Odorizzi had a simple message for Twins fans amongst the recent chaos: Relax.

"“I’m pretty new to Minnesota, but I know there’s been some tough years in multiple sports, and it just kind of carries over to this,” Odorizzi said to MLB.com’s Do Hyoung Park. “It’s not in our control. We’re not fans. We’ve got to go out and do our jobs, but it’s easy to find panic. There’s no panic in here.”"

As a Twins fan, it’s nice to know that the Twins aren’t feeling the sense of doom in the clubhouse that fans are on the outside. Entering Saturday’s game, the Twins were coming off a pair of blowout losses to the Atlanta Braves and dropped the first two games of the critical series with the Indians. To add to the panic, the Twins didn’t even hold a lead since Miguel Sano‘s walk-off home run against the Braves on Aug. 5.

On the other side of the coin, Odorizzi hails from St. Louis. Since the Twins won their last World Series championship in 1991, St. Louis has seen World Series championships in 2006 and 2011 along with the St. Louis Blues winning the Stanley Cup this past summer. That 28-year drought since the Twins’ last championship might have fans a little more on-edge than their counterparts to the south.

Regardless, the Twins starting rotation has been the brunt of fans’ frustration and Odorizzi’s start could be the one that turns around a starting five that allowed 26 earned runs in their past 20 1/3 innings entering Saturday’s game.

"“For the city in general that’s in panic mode right now: Everything is going to be fine,” Odorizzi said to Park. “That’s how we take it in here. There’s a lot of talk of, the lead is what it is, we lost it. We also started the year off when we were even with Cleveland and we got to a point where we were up. It’s the same as Opening Day all over again. We got there one time, might as well continue to do it again.”"

With Odorizzi providing what the Twins needed on the mound on Saturday, Twins fans will be able to relax if that momentum follows suit in the final six weeks of the regular season.