MINNEAPOLIS – The Twins find themselves in a curious spot with rookie Connor Prielipp. On one hand, he’s as green as a Major League starting pitcher can possibly be, with fewer than 200 innings pitched since high school.
On the other, he’s one of four healthy starting pitchers on a team that has been absolutely shellacked by rotation injuries. And he’s an effective starting pitcher on a team that is still figuring out how to effectively deploy a bullpen that can best be described as an ongoing work in progress.
Those tensions – the desire to protect Prielipp’s health and his future, and the need to get quality innings from a talented starter – are at play every time he takes the mound. On Tuesday, in a 6-4 win against the White Sox at Target Field, Prielipp showed both why he’s still something of a work in progress himself, and why Minnesota is so excited about him.
Coming off the first two subpar outings of his young career, Prielipp found himself in trouble in the third, but got out of it and went on to turn in six-plus strong innings – coming up just short of what would have been his longest outing at any point in professional or college baseball. He struck out seven against two walks, didn’t allow a home run and collected his first win since April 27.
The hard-throwing 25-year-old lefty was charged with four runs, all earned, making for a line that might not catch your eye. But if you watched Prielipp pitch, you saw it: he can do things other pitchers can’t do.
And to be fair, the line doesn’t really do Prielipp justice. Yes, all of the runs were earned, but that doesn’t mean they were all necessarily deserved. Two stolen bases and a throwing error led to one run. Another resulted from an infield single that probably should have been an out. A runner reached against him due to catcher’s interference, and though no runs scored from it, those were still extra pitches that he shouldn’t have had to throw.
The actual pitches from Prielipp on Tuesday? They were dynamite. He averaged 95.7 mph on his four-seam fastball and 95.3 on his sinker. He got 12 whiffs on 45 swings, including four on his slider. It all added up to an excellent outing that might be hidden by the number in the run column, but one that was undeniably impressive for anyone – never mind a rookie in his eighth big league start.