KANSAS CITY -- With the Twins set to embark on a five-game excursion through National League ballparks when they face the Phillies and Mets over the next week, the annual novelty of American League pitchers hitting is about to begin -- and Jake Odorizzi is raring to go.
According to manager Rocco Baldelli, Odorizzi already had his bat with him and his batting gloves on in the food room an hour before the start of batting practice at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday. Odorizzi, the proud owner of two hits (both singles) and three RBIs in his five-year career, yanked several balls to the left-field warning track in his session of batting practice.
"Warning-track balls usually end up about a fly ball to left field in a normal game," Odorizzi said. "Got to increase the speed by, like, 30 or 40 [mph]."
Of course Odorizzi is excited, but he doesn't harbor delusions of grandeur as he prepares for both his start and his handful of at-bats in Friday's series opener in Philadelphia. He realizes he'll get 33 starts over the course of a season versus only a few at-bats, so his focus is rightly on making sure that he's ready to follow up his stellar season debut Saturday, in which he struck out 11 and allowed only one hit in six innings.
"We're not delusional," Odorizzi said. "It's not easy to hit, especially for a pitcher who only does it four, five times a year. There's not a lot of preparation that goes into it. Put the ball in play, move the guy over, whatever you need to do to kind of be productive."
Odorizzi has two hits in 26 plate career appearances. Michael Pineda, Saturday's starter, has two hits in 12 plate appearances. José Berríos is 2-for-10, and Kyle Gibson is the statistical leader with four hits in 19 plate appearances -- including a perfect 2-for-2 last season, with two runs scored.
Baldelli remained political when asked which of his pitchers he expected to be most successful at the plate.
"There's no right answer here," Baldelli said. "I think all of our guys have the ability to rake, though I have seen Jake Odorizzi put good swings on the balls in game action."
Buxton doesn't start, but enters as pinch-runner
Baldelli said that Byron Buxton was sore on Wednesday morning after the outfielder sustained a back contusion on his collision with the center-field wall on Tuesday night.
Buxton, who jumped into the wall while chasing Adalberto Mondesi's inside-the-park homer in the eighth inning of Tuesday's game, was not in the starting lineup for Wednesday's 7-6 win against the Royals, but entered the game as a pinch-runner in the ninth inning. Following a leadoff walk to Nelson Cruz with the game tied at 6, Buxton took over on the basepaths and promptly stole second base before scoring the go-ahead run on an Eddie Rosario single.