St. Paul – The Minnesota Twins’ starting rotation has been their greatest strength for the 2025 season. They have a collective 3.28 ERA through 40 games, good for third in the American League and fifth in baseball.
David Festa played a small part in that when the Twins called him up for the first time this season to fill in for an injured Pablo López. Festa filled in nicely during Lopez’s absence, posting a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings with 15 strikeouts and five walks. He’s only made two starts with the Saints since they sent him back down. Still, he’s continued his hot streak, going 11 ⅔ innings in two starts with a 2.38 ERA, 14 strikeouts, and no walks.
Impressive as they are, the results are exactly what Festa, his teammates, and coaching staff have come to expect from him each time on the mound. However, the most important thing for him to do right now is to configure his sinker so it can be a comfortable secondary pitch to use the next time he’s back in the majors.
“I think it helps with the efficiency over my last two outings, I’ve thrown a lot of them,” said Festa after his last start on Tuesday. “It helped me get through the sixth, obviously with seventy-some pitches, in a normal situation, I would have maybe gone seven, so it’s something we wanted to work on as soon as I was sent down.”
Festa has thrown 38 sinkers over his last two starts, an increase from the 10 he’s thrown over his three starts with the Twins. He’s gotten some more swings and misses with it against right-handed hitters, as he wants it to be an effective weapon against them.
In his latest start, Festa had teammate Mickey Gasper catching him behind the plate for the first time. The two hadn’t even worked in bullpens together during spring training because the Twins used Gasper at first and second base as often as he was at catcher. Even with no previous experience working together, the two made things work to their benefit last Tuesday.
“It definitely took some time to get my feet within terms of what he wanted to throw and just sequencing-type stuff,” said Gasper. “But Dave was great to work with. He threw everything he wanted to with conviction. Shake-offs don’t matter, I told him, throw what you want to throw, we’ll try to get on the same page, and he executed at a really high level tonight.”
“I thought he did a great job,” Festa said. “The preparation he did beforehand was really good. He kind of knew my strengths, my weaknesses, what I’m working on, and stuff, and I thought we were on the same page really all night.”
Festa only needed 72 pitches to get through his last start and could have had the opportunity to get the last out instead of throwing 5 ⅔ innings. Originally, Festa was scheduled to throw again on Sunday, but the Saints opted to give Travis Adams his first start of the year, which is why Saints manager Toby Gardenhire didn’t want to overwork him for one last out.
“No, he absolutely could have gotten one more out,” said Gardenhire. “The big thing for me was I wanted to get him up over 70 pitches so that he’s ready for a start, whether in the big leagues or next week, or whatever.
“You want to keep his workload fairly light, but at the same time, you want to make sure you get him enough work so that he’s ready to do whatever.”
Festa was itching to get that last out for himself, but recognized the situation and what was ahead. The next thing he wants to work on for himself is getting through an entire lineup third time through the order. He had a good chance at it in his last start Tuesday, but he knows it’ll take some time to achieve that mark.
“It’s just for me, that’s something I’ve tried to continue to work on the third time through, which has been a common theme,” said Festa. “Some outings, it’s been good, and others, I think, most of the time, it’s execution. For me, I want to continue, especially in these types of outings, I want to continue to face the guys a third time around to learn and figure out what works best.”
And whenever Festa does accomplish getting through a lineup third time through the order consistently, it will be a Festavus celebration, especially if he can mow down a lineup three times through in his return to the Twins later this season.
