New-look bullpen steps up in Shelton's first win with Twins

BALTIMORE – Questions dogged the Twins about their bullpen all offseason, and again all spring. On Saturday, for one day at least, the new-look group showed that it is up to the task.

Five Minnesota relievers combined to get 14 outs against a dangerous lineup in a cozy ballpark, supporting a strong but short outing from Taj Bradley as the Twins won their first game of the young season, 4-1 against the Orioles at Camden Yards.

Cole Sands got the team’s first save chance of the year and converted it with minimal drama, capping a group performance that had to create a few sighs of relief around Twins Territory. Two lefties gave way to three right-handers as an unproven group enjoyed its first unqualified success.

“Really good," said manager Derek Shelton, who celebrated his first win at the helm of his new team. “I mean, outstanding.”

Making his season debut after a strong spring, Bradley turned around his fortunes at Camden Yards, a park where he had previously made two extremely ill-fated starts. He struck out nine Orioles and allowed one run over 4 1/3 innings, but needed 92 pitches to get through his outing, leading to the early arrival of the relief corps.

It’s a group that has been routinely pointed to as the club’s biggest worry, at least outside the clubhouse. Minnesota traded away five top relievers at the Trade Deadline last year, then made mostly low-profile additions over the winter and spring. It was unclear before Saturday who would pitch the late innings with a lead, and it likely still is not set in stone, but some questions have been answered in the early days.

“I think we definitely know we have the talent,” said Sands, one of four holdovers from last year’s 'pen. “I think we all have that chip to be a little bit blue collar. Go out there and, like today, it was a grinder. Taj went out there and pitched his tail off, and every guy after that pitched their tail off.”

It wasn’t always easy, but they got it done. Anthony Banda followed Bradley, and though he hit a batter and issued a walk, he struck out a pair to get through the fifth. Kody Funderburk allowed a pair of soft singles but also fanned two in the sixth before handing off to Eric Orze, who stabilized the game.

Orze got Gunnar Henderson to fly out to escape a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. Kody Clemens’ RBI single in the top of the seventh extended the Twins’ lead, and Orze came back out to pitch a perfect seventh.

“Orze comes in and the group he’s got to go through, and the way their lineup is so right-left based, and to be able to neutralize them, I thought, was outstanding. He’s a guy we know can use the split and we trust him against lefthanders and he showed that today.”

Justin Topa, who had been brought in with a runner on in the seventh in Thursday’s opener, breezed through the eighth in a setup role on Saturday. That set the stage for the Twins’ first save opportunity of the year, and it went to Sands, who handled it with aplomb.

The righty walked Taylor Ward but struck out Gunnar Henderson and induced a force-play grounder from Pete Alonso to close it out, ending the game by retiring Baltimore’s two most dangerous hitters.

“A lot of things can happen,” said Banda. “At the same time, they’re going to put us in the best situation possible as far as the guys we best match up against. Regardless if that’s the second, first inning, wherever. It’s going to happen. That’s all we can read into it. If we go and do what we did today, that shows, hey, that’s what we can be. Now let’s build on that.”