Despite a strong David Festa outing and an impressive showing at the plate for a Minnesota offense that is 26th in OPS (.615) across Major League Baseball, Jorge Alcala failed to record an out after entering the game in the sixth inning, where he allowed a staggering four runs on two hits and a pair of walks.
Alcala’s poor performance and a pair of errors from the Minnesota defense largely contributed to the Twins’ 7-6 loss to the Detroit Tigers Friday night at Target Field. The Twins’ record dropped to an awful 4-10, 4 ½ games behind the first-place Tigers in the American League Central.
It wasn’t the first time this season Alcala couldn’t record an out after entering a game in the sixth inning
In Game 2 of the Twins’ season-opening series with the St. Louis Cardinals on March 29, Alcala relieved Joe Ryan to start the bottom half of the sixth inning and gave up a double, a single and a pair of walks without recording an out. He was charged with three earned runs in the inning.
Alcala’s rough outing against the Tigers came after four straight scoreless one-inning outings.
However, two of those scoreless innings, one in which he allowed two hits and hit a batter, came against the Houston Astros, who hold a .638 OPS, 25th in MLB.
Alcala's other two scoreless outings were against arguably worse offensive squads: the Chicago White Sox (.601 OPS) and the Kansas City Royals (.602 OPS).
Defense made a pair of costly mistakes
While Alcala’s performance certainly cost the Twins the game, not all blame belongs to the 29-year-old pitcher. If the Twins hadn’t made two crucial defensive mistakes, we’d be looking at a 6-5 win for the home team.
In the fifth inning, Gleyber Torres tied the game on a softly hit ground ball to right field that Matt Wallner costly threw into the Tigers dugout, allowing Dillon Dingler to score.
Third baseman Willi Castro committed the Twins’ second error, mishandling a Kerry Carpenter ground ball in the seventh inning. After Justin Topa induced a pair of groundouts, Carpenter came around to score via a Colt Keith single up the middle.
David Festa pitched well in his first major league game of the season
Festa earned the call to the majors due to Pablo López being put on the 15-day IL Friday. In 4 ⅔ innings of work, Festa allowed one run, three hits, a walk and a hit-batter on 64 pitches Friday.
Festa pitched in 14 games for the Twins last season, posting a 4.90 ERA in 64 ⅓ innings. His 3.76 FIP suggested better times were to come.
However, those hypothetical better times took a while to come to fruition. Festa had an awful spring training, allowing 15 runs across 11 ⅓ innings, and struggled in his last start with the Triple-A St. Paul Saints, giving up six runs (five earned) on 10 hits across 3 ⅓ innings.
But the better times finally arrived for Festa with his high-quality outing at the major league level.
Twins looked good at the plate
Despite the loss, Minnesota outhit Detroit 12-10.
Ty France, who continued his offensive resurgence by going 3-for-4 on Friday, gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead on a single up the middle in the second inning before Detroit tied the game due to Wallner's error.
France has been dominating at the plate, as the former All-Star entered Friday’s matchup after hitting a home run in two straight games against the Kansas City Royals. France started the season like the rest of the offense: slow; he was hitting .188/.235/.219 after the series with the Houston Astros ended on April 6, and he now posts a .300/.364/.480 slashline.
The fifth inning saw three runs score for the Twins on an RBI single from Carlos Correa, an RBI fielder's choice from Byron Buxton and an RBI double from Edouard Julien, who ended the night 3-for-5.
Correa collected a walk along with his hit, and Buxton brought the Twins within one after hitting a moonshot 394-foot, 40-degree launch angle home run in the seventh inning. The Twins centerfielder’s big day at the plate, which included a walk, came after missing the last two games due to a personal matter.
With the Twins down 7-5 with two outs in the ninth, France added another RBI single up the middle before Mickey Gasper grounded out to first on a check swing with the winning run on first to end the game.
Game 2 of the Twins’ three-game set with the Tigers is scheduled for 1:10 P.M. on Saturday.