MINNEAPOLIS – This is the Mick Abel the Twins expected to see, the one they saw throughout Spring Training. The Abel of his last two starts is a pitcher you can dream on.
Abel turned in his second consecutive scoreless start against an expected contender on Tuesday night, stifling the Red Sox over seven innings in a 6-0 win. Minnesota has won four straight and eight out of nine, and Abel has completely righted the ship after a couple of rough outings to start the season.
It was the most efficient start by a Twins starter this season, the longest scoreless start, and tied for the longest start overall. Abel took control of the game early and never let up.
“It was outstanding,” said manager Derek Shelton. “I mean, in control the entire game, mixing and matching, fastball usage was tremendous. He used the changeup [against right-handed hitters]. Just overall in command of his pitches.”
Throwing six different pitches for strikes, working efficiently and mixing soft contact with swings and misses, Abel very much looked the part of a potential top of the rotation starter. He struck out a career high 10 batters, scattered four singles and didn’t issue a walk. He finished with strikeouts on five different pitches.
“It doesn’t happen all that often, so I think that today was a good day,” said Abel.
“I think in my mind, in between innings, I’m like, all right, let’s keep it rolling, got a good mix going. Keeping them off the heater. We’re mixing them up every pitch. It was good.”
Abel has now thrown 14 consecutive shutout innings. His 15 whiffs on Tuesday were the second-highest total of his career, and the most since his Major League debut with the Phillies, against the Pirates in May of last year.
In 10 days, he’s reminded the Twins of what they saw all spring, when he was their best pitcher, and erased thoughts of his uneven first two outings.
He scuffled in those two games, but in each case, there were mitigating circumstances. Abel was asked to “piggyback” in relief of Bailey Ober in his season debut, and the game time temperature for his first start was a frigid 39 degrees. Abel’s velocity and stuff suffered in that game, but in the two outings since, against the Tigers and Red Sox, he’s been brilliant.
“It’s easy to say I had no issue with it, but I definitely had some issues with it as far as how mechanics were feeling and just where I was at,” said Abel. “It wasn’t the best spot. But thankfully, we were able to have some conversations here, and I was able to get back in comfortably.”
Abel is a former top-50 overall prospect and was one of the biggest prizes of the Twins’ Trade Deadline selloff last July. There’s never been any doubt about his potential. But as with many promising young starters, he has searched for consistency. The last two games have been, without question, the best consecutive starts of his Major League career.
Minnesota entered the year with great optimism about its rotation, in part because of veterans Joe Ryan and Pablo López (before López suffered a season-ending injury), but also in part due to the promise of youngsters like Abel and Taj Bradley.
It appears Bradley has taken a major step forward, holding opponents to one run or fewer in each of his four starts. Now Abel is starting to show signs of doing the same, and the combination would be huge for a Twins team that has surprised in the early going.
“You know he’s locked in, he’s in a groove, and it’s exciting,” said Byron Buxton, who homered twice on Tuesday. “We saw little glimpses of it last year. He went in the offseason and did some work. Coming back, he’s been phenomenal. To be able to do the things he’s done, obviously he’s had some tough starts in 30 or 20 degree weather, whatever you want to call it. No excuses. But he’s gone out there and battled through those. To finally get a warm day and see what he actually is, is very exciting for sure.”