Chris Paddack unironically praised as 'positive note' despite 11-3 loss

There wasn't much for Minnesota Twins fans to cheer about on Tuesday night.

Much of the angst fans are feeling runs deeper than the 11-3 loss in Baltimore, as it seems to simply be a continuation of terrible baseball that the team seems unable to snap out of playing. Since Saturday's doubleheader sweep of the Tigers, Minnesota has lost three straight games and been outscored 22-10.

Eleven of those runs came in Tuesday's loss, with nine of them being charged to starter Chris Paddack. Despite this, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli refused to call his starter out and instead seemed to praise him during his postgame comments.

Rocco Baldelli praises Chris Paddack despite 11-3 loss to Orioles

After the game Baldelli called out a number of things that went wrong, but Paddack's performance was not among them. In fact, he praised Paddack for trying to gut it out despite giving up nine earned runs in just over five innings of work.

"On a positive note, Paddack continued to work ... there was no quit in him at all. He was frustrated, yes, but he kept going for us and got through a significant portion of the game even though we were down," Rocco said. "We got a guy who was not going to give the ball up just because he wasn't pitching fantastic early in the game. He just wanted to do what he could to pitch as long as he could and get as many outs as he can."

To be fair, Rocco has long drawn the ire of fans for how he's managed his starters and this seems to be in stark contrast to that. While Paddack lasted fewer than six innings in his "full start", the hook could have come much sooner than it did.

Typically it does with Rocco, but he praised Paddack for not looking rattled which is indeed a positive takeaway from the otherwise rough game.

What Paddack sticking out his start also did was allow the Twins to rest most of its bullpen for another night. Caleb Thielbar and Jay Jackson saw a combined 2.2 innings of work and the nature of the game meant Minnesota only needed eight innings out of their pitchers.

That's an acrobatic spin things, but the Twins' bullpen has been one of the lone bright spots so far this season. Sunday was rough when a lead was blown late against Detroit but for the most part the unit has been the reason Minnesota has been in games they otherwise shouldn't be.

It's hard to pick out positives from Tuesday's loss, but Paddack sticking out his start as long as he did -- and not looking rattled despite getting cooked alive by Baltimore's lineup -- is one of them.

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