Dillon Gee made history tonight, becoming the 30th pitcher the Minnesota has used this season when he made his Twins debut in a 4-1 loss to the Texas Rangers. By then Adalberto Mejia had left the game, giving up a three-run home run to Joey Gallo in his final inning of the night.
“I thought after the first inning he came out and he had a little trouble with command, but he settled in, he did a nice job of minimizing there in the first inning with the strikeouts,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor. “And he kinda kicked it into gear there for a couple innings, but the pitch count was climbing, and when he had a chance to finish guys there to keep the game tied, he couldn’t make that last pitch.”
Mejia walked Delino DeShields, gave up a single to Elvis Andrus and an RBI single to Nomar Mazara to start the game, but struck out the next three batters he faced to get out of the inning.
He struck out the next two batters — old friend Carlos Gomez and Joey Gallo — he faced in the second, but lost control of the game in the fourth.
He gave up a double to Mike Napoli, despite Eddie Rosario’s best efforts to make a play on the ball, walked Gomez and gave up a home run to Gallo.
Gallo never saw a fastball in the at-bat, and Molitor felt that while Mejia’s slider that Gallo hit out of the park wasn’t all that bad, the pitch was too familiar to him at that time.
“I don’t think it was horrible,” he said. “I think it was the repetitiveness of the pitch, and having a guy have a chance to see the spin, and knowing where it has to start to be hittable.
“He chased a couple early. He didn’t bite on the 0-2 one, and eventually he got on out there where he could get extended and still pull it a pretty fair amount of distance.”
Mejia’s start could have gone longer if Joe Mauer had not dropped a routine fly ball, which would have been the final out of the inning.
Mejia didn’t think the pitch to Gallo, or the approach he took against him, was that bad. He also said he had trouble gripping the ball in the 55 degree weather during the first inning and was upset he couldn’t go deeper into the game.
Mejia’s short outing created an opportunity for Dillon Gee, who signed a minor league deal with the Twins on June 20 after being released by the Rangers earlier this year.
“I told him, I said, I don’t know, I think he was four or five days here the first time and a couple days here, and I hadn’t seen him pitch,” said Molitor.
“Just kind of a matter of time before he got an opportunity, and he kinda gave us an idea of a piece that’s kinda been missing — a guy that can come in and eat some innings up in those type of ballgames.”
Gee gave up only two hits and no runs in three innings. He said he doesn’t hold a grudge against the Rangers, despite being released by his hometown team, because at this point he’d have a beef with too many teams given his longevity in the league.
Minnesota was hapless against A.J. Griffin, who was recently activated from the disabled list had not pitched since May 26. Byron Buxton had an RBI double in the third, Eddie Rosario singled off of him in the fifth and Jason Castro had a single in the eighth — that’s it.
“We’ve been having a little bit of a lull offensively. There’s some guys that are searching a little bit right now,” said Molitor.
“He’s kinda got that fastball that doesn’t register real high on the gun, but guys have trouble squaring it up and he had enough changeup-curveball combination to keep us guessing too.”
The Twins played like a team that sold at the deadline — a little bit deflated because of management’s sudden change of heart. Brian Dozier, who has been particularly vocal about the team’s decision to sell, went 0-for-4.
Minnesota now sits at 51-58, falling seven games behind the Cleveland Indians for the division lead.
