Before their Saturday fell apart and the Twins' playoff dreams were crushed, Tommy Milone did what he could to keep his club in the game.
He was the epitome of a crafty lefty. He worked the corners, changed speeds, threw offspeed pitches when hitters expected fastballs. He neutralized the Royals for six innings in his final outing of 2015.
"He was wonderful," Twins manager Paul Molitor said after a 5-1 loss to Kansas City eliminated his team from postseason contention.
In six innings, Milone gave up one run on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts. Eric Hosmer drilled a first-inning fastball for an RBI double, but that's all the defending American League champion Royals would get off Milone.
Brian Dozier's RBI single in the sixth tied the score at 1-1. But Milone didn't come out for the seventh inning, when the Royals scored four two-out runs against the Twins bullpen. Everything fell apart after Milone left.
Monday, he held Cleveland to two runs over 5⅔ innings in an emergency start after Phil Hughes got sick. Milone backed it up with Saturday's outing. The timing of these two starts couldn't have been better.
He blew a 5-0 lead against the Angels on Sept. 17 and was pulled from the rotation because of shoulder fatigue. Milone's final two outings, showing he can thrive in big games, could influence the Twins as they consider options for their 2016 rotation.
"It's pretty big," said Milone, who finished 9-5 with a 3.92 ERA and even a save with the Twins after spending a month dominating at Class AAA Rochester. "Of course, this late in the season, meaningful games this late, I wanted to do whatever I could to come back and help the team. Cleveland, I wasn't expected to start, but I was able to jump in there and start that first game. It meant a lot to be out there. They had interest in giving me the ball and I wanted to prove that they made the right choice."