CLEVELAND — The Twins considered bringing up another position player from Class AAA Rochester, "someone who could possibly help us in the short-term off the bench, but we didn't get very far with that discussion," manager Paul Molitor said. "It became apparent that our best option was to add another pitcher."
Yes, the Twins have a nine-man bullpen at the moment, "a strange circumstance," Molitor said. But the move made sense, he said, because the Twins don't need a fifth starter for another eight days, so there was no reason to keep rookie Tyler Duffey if he wasn't going to pitch.
So A.J. Achter is here for his second stint with the Twins — he was a September call-up last year — and Molitor hopes to get him in a game soon.
First, he'd like another one of those eight-shutout-innings performances from Mike Pelfrey, who is on the mound tonight. And he'd like his team to completely forget about the four days they endured in Canada.
"Getting out of Toronto was a good thing for us. It didn't go well. You look at all areas of the game, they were better in all of them than we were," Molitor said. "But guys each day are still believing they can come out here and find ways to get back on track. We're trying to figure out ways to ride the storm out a little bit. And it's been a long storm. Feels that way."
Here are the lineups for tonight's first game of a three-game set at Progressive Field, where the Twins won two out of three in May:
TWINS
Dozier 2B
