KANSAS CITY -- After strong first outings from José Berríos, Jake Odorizzi, Michael Pineda and Martin Pérez to open the 2019 season, Kyle Gibson had tough acts to follow in his delayed debut against the Royals on Wednesday.
Gibson initially followed suit with a strong start to the game before his outing came apart in a five-run fifth inning, when he said he had a mental lapse and got frustrated about not limiting the damage.
But for the second straight game, the Twins pieced together a late rally against the Royals’ bullpen. A two-run single from Max Kepler tied the game in the eighth before Eddie Rosario plated the go-ahead run in the ninth with a single to right to give Minnesota a 7-6 victory at Kauffman Stadium and a two-game series sweep over Kansas City.
“We just have an offense that we're never out of this game,” Gibson said. “It's going to make it easy on the starting pitching and the bullpen when you know that you don't have near as much of a fine line to deal with when you always have confidence that you have the chance to put up a two- or three-run inning at any point.”
Gibson led the Twins in ERA (3.62) and quality starts (18) last season, but he had to wait until Wednesday to make his season debut due to a combination of his continued recovery from a January battle with E. coli and Minnesota's generous distribution of off-days early in the schedule. Gibson said after his start on Wednesday that he felt good physically and that it felt like a normal outing.
In his return to the mound, Gibson allowed six runs (five earned) on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings, with two strikeouts and two walks. As a whole, he felt that he executed his pitches well, aside from a few in the troublesome fifth inning.
“Even at the end of the fifth -- I know some of them were base hits -- but I was throwing the ball where I wanted to, and [Chris] Owings hits the ball [to the] opposite end of the shift and put a good swing on it," Gibson said. "And none of those are moral victories, but I still felt good.”
The Royals pushed across an early run against Gibson with an Adalberto Mondesi triple followed by an Alex Gordon RBI single in the first inning, but Gibson responded by retiring nine consecutive batters. He then ran into trouble in the fourth and fifth, as he progressed into his second and third times through Kansas City's lineup.
The righty was one pitch away from escaping the fifth inning unscathed, but Gibson walked Billy Hamilton on a full-count pitch with two outs. Later in the inning, second baseman Ehire Adrianza made a late underhand throw to first on a fairly routine grounder, allowing Mondesi to reach on an infield single and extend the inning.
“I was worried way too much about Billy Hamilton when I think about it,” Gibson said. “We’re up 3-1, and who cares if he steals second at that point? But in my mind, I was thinking so much about keeping him out of scoring position.”
By the time Gibson was removed from the game, seven straight batters had reached base, including Gordon on a three-run homer that gave the Royals the lead. Gibson said that his frustration caused him to lose track of some pitch sequences and affected his execution, both physically and mentally.
“He really, at different points in that inning, probably did his job to get out of the inning,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He made some good pitches and wasn’t rewarded for those good pitches that he made, and we left him out there a little bit longer.”
Backup catchers come through despite scheduling difficulties
Baldelli has already had to deal with his starters not getting consistent at-bats due to the Twins’ off-days early this season, but no group has been hit harder by those difficulties than Minnesota’s three catchers.
Jason Castro went four days between starts, while Mitch Garver had three days between his first two starts as they have split time behind the plate with third-string catcher Willians Astudillo. Despite the challenges of inconsistent opportunities early in the season, both Garver and Astudillo were instrumental to the Twins’ victory on Wednesday, combining for six hits, four runs and three RBIs.
“There’s a chance you can play every day, going into the game late,” Garver said. “Or you start one, or whatever the case may be. You have to be ready to play every single day, whether you do or you don’t. Yeah, it’s not easy.”
The versatile Astudillo, who started at catcher on Sunday, started at third base and eventually moved to left field on Wednesday, going 3-for-5 with two singles, a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Garver was 3-for-4 with a double, two singles, two RBIs and two runs scored.
“This is the best I’ve felt since Spring Training -- including Spring Training,” Garver said. “Getting comfortable with the strike zone, the swings I’m trying to put on baseballs. This is the best I’ve felt.”
“It’s something to work through, I guess,” Baldelli said. “When you do see those guys go out there, I already have confidence in them. I think it feels good to get them a little bit of added confidence, too, to just know that when they’re going out there -- even though it’s not exactly regular at-bats playing every single day -- that they can go out there and perform.”