New Twins outfielder Jordan Luplow mops up with eighth-inning relief appearance

PHILADELPHIA – Jordan Luplow might have stumbled onto a new direction for his baseball career.

"I'm not quite Shohei [Ohtani] yet, but we're working on it," the Twins outfielder/mop-up pitcher deadpanned after pitching the eighth inning of the Twins' 13-2 loss to the Phillies on Friday night. "I've got to get the pitching guys over here and get some work in."

Actually, it wasn't the Angels' two-way star that he was trying to remind anyone of. Luplow had a different target in mind.

With Johan Rojas at the plate, Luplow leaned in toward home plate as though looking for a sign from his catcher. And as he did, he lifted both of his arms away from his body, the signature gesture of veteran Philadelphia closer Craig Kimbrel.

"I just felt like it would be kind of funny and make everyone laugh in a tough spot for us," Luplow said. The response from the crowd of Phillies fans, though, wasn't laughter — it was boos.

"Yeah, they didn't really like it too much," he said.

Rojas took the pitch for a strike and delighted the crowd, and Kimbrel, by lining Luplow's next pitch into the left-field seats.

Luplow obviously enjoyed his second career relief appearance, and he tried to make everyone enjoy it, too. When he unleashed his 58-mph eephus pitch to Edmundo Sosa, for instance, the ball hit Sosa on the hip. Luplow shouted something at the batter, and they both laughed.

"I feel like that was slow enough for him to get out of the way," the Twins' recent waiver pickup said. "I'm going to have to have a talk with him in the tunnel after this."

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who joked afterward that Luplow is under consideration for a bullpen spot, said he appreciated the show, too.

"He went out there and threw strikes, which is all we want," Baldelli said. "He got the crowd into the game at a point where they might have been vegging out a little bit. So it was actually a reasonably good outing."

Will he get another? Luplow hopes so. This one went better than his other appearance on the mound, last year while with Tampa Bay, he said.