Portland, Oregon’s Mick Abel, who hadn’t allowed an earned run coming into Friday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, finally got touched up in the 6-1 loss to the Jays.
Still, Abel, a former first-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies who came to Minnesota last season in exchange for closer Jhoan Duran, has pitched well and likely has made a very strong case for a spot in the starting rotation — a case made stronger by the fact that the Twins don’t appear to have any interest in finding a starter to replace the injured Pablo Lopez.
It wasn’t a disaster for the Jesuit High School grad. He allowed two runs on four hits, including a home run, across three-plus innings with a walk and four strikeouts. He’s now 0-1 this spring with a 1.35 ERA.
Abel didn’t get a whole lot of help.
The Twins had a grand total of six hits in the loss, four of them coming from Alan Roden and Matt Wallner. Roden, too, is making a strong case to break camp with the team. The Twins were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 15 on base.
Some other performances of note:
- Bailey Ober on Thursday allowed just a run over two-plus innings with a walk and two strikeouts, although 53 pitches in two and two-thirds of an inning isn’t terribly efficient.
- The pitching was especially strong in a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday. Taj Bradley struck out seven across five innings, followed by six more whiffs from Taylor Rogers, Andrew Chafin and Justin Topa. Anthony Banda closed out the game to pick up the win.
- Joe Ryan, now the rotation’s No. 1 starter with Lopez out of the picture, made his spring debut on Tuesday and pitched three scoreless innings on 48 pitches.
Things weren’t as good on Saturday in the Twins’ 9-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, and it appears to have been largely self-inflicted as starter Simeon Woods Richardson struggled with his control.
SWR needed 79 pitches to get through four innings. In the process he walked three batters and ultimately allowed three runs on three hits. His spring ERA remains elevated at 6.60.
Extra innings…
–Can we get to the regular season already? I am more than ready for real baseball over the exhibition variety.
–It all begins for the Twins on March 26 with a road series at the Baltimore Orioles, followed by a trip to Kansas City to play the Royals. The Twins’ home opener is Friday, April 3, against the Rays. The advanced weather forecast for Opening Day shows a daytime high of 51 degrees with an overnight low of 30, according to AccuWeather.