Minnesota Twins starter Tyler Duffey gave up eight hits and five earned runs in 1.1 innings in his 17th start of the season, the shortest outing of his career. Michael Tonkin, the next reliever, gave up two earned runs, allowing the Atlanta Braves to take a 7-0 lead by the 4th inning.
“Yeah, you know, you get down by seven, and their guy was throwing the ball well. We pecked away at them and got back into the game. They added on a couple, which proved to be the difference at the end of the game,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor.
“We had chances right down to the end. But there’s no question coming back from seven’s a tough task.”
Eddie Rosario had a double and Kurt Suzuki hit a two-run home run to close the gap to 7-3, and the Twins tacked on two more in the fifth and sixth innings, but it was too much to overcome after the poor start — especially after the Braves tacked on a run in both the sixth and eighth innings.
“It’s just a grind mentality when you’re facing those types of games. You try to envision ways you can put crooked numbers up there; we did it three innings in a row. We narrowed the gap to where we had a chance there at the end,” said Molitor.
“The eighth inning turned out to be an inning where I had some options on different things to do, I elected to try to play for the tie there. We had a tough bunt to read, and we couldn’t get to third, and it kinda fizzled from there.”
Duffey’s previous start only lasted 2.1 innings, and he failed record a strikeout for the second time this season.
“Well, we talked before the game that I’m sure he was anxious to pitch after his last outing, maybe to a point where it was detrimental in the fact that he seemed like he was, from my perspective, overthrowing,” said Molitor.
“We talked about whether he should go back out there in the second inning, and you know the perils of taking a guy out early in the game, what it can do to your bullpen, so we gave him a shot to go back out there and things started right back up.”
Asked if he would remain in the rotation, Molitor demurred.
“Right now he’s scheduled to pitch Monday in Cleveland, and that’s really about all I can say about that right now. We haven’t really had a chance to rehash the game or where we might go or what might unfold the next couple days that could change that,” he said.
“But right now he’s scheduled to pitch Monday.”
