Like a freak spring squall, Matt Shoemaker's day went from gorgeous to cloudy so quickly, "abrupt" understates the turnaround.
The righthander, whose Twins debut last week was nearly spotless, continued to keep hitters off balance for five seemingly effortless innings Sunday, allowing only three hits and no runs while striking out seven. It brought his season ERA to 0.82.
And it took only about 10 minutes to quadruple that gaudy number — and get him thrown out of the game.
Shoemaker surrendered a leadoff home run to Kyle Seager in the sixth, just the second run he had given up in his two starts with the Twins, on a pitch that was "just a hanging breaking ball," he said. "That's going to happen sometimes. Hopefully they miss it. He didn't miss it."
The next batter, Jose Marmolejos, hit a ball so high up the right field wall, umpires had to check replay to make sure it wasn't a homer, too. Marmolejos settled for a double, then went to third on Luis Torrens' single. Both scored on the next pitch, which Taylor Trammell drove onto the right field plaza, ballooning Shoemaker's ERA to 4.09 just like that.
As Trammell ran the bases, Shoemaker approached umpire Manny Gonzalez to remind him, for the second time, of a 1-2 sinker to Marmelejos that the pitcher believed was strike three. Gonzalez called it a ball.
"That changes the whole outcome of the whole inning," Shoemaker said. "I didn't say anything bad to him. I said something after he got on base, but I was like, 'Hey, you can't miss that. Like, c'mon.' "
There should have been one out and nobody on when Torrens hit, the pitcher said, but the situation was much more challenging. "But I've still got to bear down, make better pitches in those situations," he said.