Twins' Slowey shows he's one fast learner

The young righthander kept the Royals at bay with seven effective innings.

By LA VELLE E. NEAL III , Star Tribune

Last update: September 11, 2008 - 7:06 AM

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TWINS 7, KANSAS CITY 1

Up next: 12:10 p.m. today vs. Kansas City • Metrodome • TV: FSN (1500-AM)

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The pregame bullpen session Wednesday was a disaster. When the game began, Twins righthander Kevin Slowey didn't have a feel for his pitches and was overthrowing.

But after the first inning, Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson didn't have to say much to Slowey in the dugout.

"He said, 'What am I doing?'" Anderson recalled. " 'I throw 88-89 [miles per hour], and I'm trying to throw 94.'

"He figured it out. He slowed himself down."

By the third inning, Slowey was where he wanted to be. At the end of the game, the Twins were where they wanted to be as well, with a 7-1 victory over Kansas City at the Metrodome that kept them one game behind the White Sox in the AL Central race.

Part of the reason the Twins are contending is because of Slowey's ongoing run of good pitching. He held the Royals to one run over seven innings on four hits.

He was set to pitch the eighth despite having thrown 94 pitches, but the bottom of the inning took so long that Twins manager Ron Gardenhire decided to go to the bullpen.

Slowey (12-9), in nine starts going back to July 28, is 6-2 with a 2.45 ERA. His walk of Mark Teahen in the seventh was only his third walk since the beginning of August. While all the Twins' young starters have impressed at times this season, Slowey might be the most impressive. He has all three of the Twins' complete games and both of their shutouts. He's walked only 19 batters in 146 1/3 innings.

Slowey, 24, has had such success because he can take a step back, realize what he's doing wrong and make adjustments. It's one thing to know what you're doing wrong and another to fix it.

"It's something we all develop as pitchers," Slowey said. "Hopefully, the longer you throw and the more experience you have out there, you start to realize what you are doing wrong.

"For me, maybe having that off day [Monday], maybe my arm felt better than it normally does, though I feel like I saw Nick [Blackburn] do the same thing last night. It kind of took me a while to settle in, and we were all right after that."

Slowey gave up two hits and one run to open the first and leadoff doubles in the second and fifth innings. But he pitched out of most of those situations -- with a hard-hit ball here and there -- by making pitches when he needed them most. He retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced.

"Once he got going," Gardenhire said, "he started locating his ball and moving it in and out and gave us a chance to score some runs."

Jason Kubel, Delmon Young, Nick Punto and Carlos Gomez -- the Twins' fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth hitters -- each drove in a run as the Twins eased out to a 4-1 lead by the sixth.

The Twins broke the game open in the seventh when Gomez singled, Denard Span walked and both runners scored when Royals reliever Leo Nunez picked up Alexi Casilla's bunt and threw wildly to first.

Slowey produced a strong start. The Twins scored early and late. And they won consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 21-22 and have won a series for the first time since Aug. 18-20 against Oakland.

"Something is starting to go right for us," Gardenhire said.

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