When the Twins released Matt Shoemaker and traded away Jose Berríos and J.A. Happ this summer, the starting rotation lost most of its veteran presence. With Kenta Maeda stepping away from the team earlier this month to undergo Tommy John surgery, the new rotation is rife with rookies.
Except for Michael Pineda, the unassuming 32-year-old who pitched Thursday in the Twins' 7-2 victory over Toronto at Target Field in front of an announced crowd of 15,509.
Pineda isn't flashy, doesn't often stack up a dozen strikeouts. But there's something about the way he pitches, his presence, that gives the team a solid foundation.
"He'd be the first one to tell you he didn't have his best stuff [Thursday], but he went out there and kept it in the zone, threw a lot of strikes, kept us off balance, and he missed enough barrels, too," catcher Mitch Garver said. "He got us a win."
Pineda — now sharing a rotation with the likes of 25-year-old Joe Ryan and 26-year-olds Bailey Ober and Griffin Jax — is consistent, both in how he performs on the mound and how he approaches life. As in Thursday's game, when he gave the Twins five innings, allowing only two runs off eight hits.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said with Pineda starting, games never quite seem to go awry.
"Nope, they never seem to really get out of hand. Things are flying, and sometimes there's base runners, and really, it doesn't even matter what's going on around him," Baldelli said. "… He slows things down very well. He understands how to do that. … It doesn't matter what's going on around him, it doesn't matter what the last hitter did or how hard he hit the ball. He knows what to do next."
Toronto entered Thursday a half-game behind the New York Yankees and had a chance to pull even with a victory. Instead, they Jays are a full game behind in a tight American League wild-card race that also features the Boston Red Sox.
