The Minnesota Twins led 2-0 going into the seventh inning. Starter Phil Hughes was cruising, and Joe Mauer and Miguel Sano had homered in the fifth and sixth.
But Hughes was battling shoulder fatigue, and asked to come out of the game after Miguel Cabrera led off the seventh with a triple and Victor Martinez scored him on a sacrifice fly. He had thrown only 75 pitches.
“If there’s a drop in velocity I’d rather have a fresh bullpen than me trying to get through in a tight game like that with a lead,” Hughes told the Pioneer Press. “Usually when I get around 60-70 pitches, it’ll get a tick or two of velocity off my fastball. It’s a tough lineup to navigate the third time through without my best stuff. I’m trying to battle and grind. We have a 2-1 lead.
“It’s almost like I’m cheating death at that point so they decided to go to the pen, which I had no issue with considering everything that we knew. Obviously, hindsight’s a different story.”
The Tigers added six more runs in that inning, with Michael Tonkin getting the loss after giving up three earned runs and only recording one out. Trevor May got tagged for three more earned runs without recording a single out. Brandon Kintzler finally ended the rally.
“I’m out there trying everything I can to get a guy out and nothing happened,” May told the Star Tribune with anguish in his voice. “Coming out of the game was like … as you can tell, I’m still pretty livid about what’s happened. And it has happened to this whole team.
“When a guy goes and throws his heart out like Phil did, he needed this. We’ve got to pick him up.”
Hughes will remain in the rotation, as his shoulder is getting stronger with therapy between starts. There has been no talk of going on the disabled list.
“We have been in a really tough spot, not winning a lot of games,” Hughes said, “and to put us in position where we do have a chance to win a game and for it to unfold like that late is tough to watch.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Associated Press]
