It wasn't planned this way, Rocco Baldelli said, it's just the randomness of the baseball calendar. But the Twins next week will visit Houston, home of the team with the best record in the American League, a club that outscored the Twins 21-3 in a May sweep at Target Field, and won't use Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan or Tyler Mahle in the three games at Minute Maid Park.
That last name sounds ominous, since Mahle, acquired to stabilize the Twins' shaky rotation, was originally scheduled to start the series opener on Tuesday. But Baldelli and Mahle were actually upbeat about the righthander's status on Friday.
"I feel really good today. I could have went out and thrown. I lifted [weights] today and everything," said Mahle, who left Wednesday's start against the Royals because of shoulder fatigue in the third inning. "I feel pretty solid about where I'm at."
Mahle said he can't explain why his fastball was generally 4-5 miles per hour slower than normal, but it didn't feel like he was hurt. "It was just a weird day. I felt fine," Mahle said. "I wasn't scared of throwing hard. I was locating stuff." Even when he rotated his arm between pitches, he said, it was a sign of confusion, not discomfort.
"I saw my velo was down … so I was trying to wake something up in there," he said. "It didn't."
Still, the Twins want to ease Mahle back into action, just to be safe, Baldelli said. An MRI found no reason for concern, but "he's going to have a period of time — I'm not sure how many days — where he's not going to throw. He's not going to pick up a ball for a few days," the manager said, though he hinted that a 15-day stint on the injured list probably won't be necessary. "We're going to build him back up, as long as everything seems like it's in a good place."
So who might take Mahle's place on Tuesday? Baldelli said the Twins haven't made that decision, though he would prefer to keep rookie Cole Sands in the bullpen.
Garver returns
Mitch Garver looked around Target Field, his home ballpark for most of five seasons, and considered how important Minnesota remains to him.