With the Twins' hitting struggles well-documented and imminently visible after a 1-0 loss to Texas on Wednesday night, the pitching rotation is operating under a microscope of sorts.
The starter, on any given day, needs to be dang near perfect to hold a shot at getting the win, it seems.
"It all goes to our starters," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "They give you a chance. And we had chances last night, we had plenty of chances to score. But it has to continue for you to be successful. These guys have to continue getting us deep into games."
Last night, Kyle Gibson was the hard-luck loser despite allowing just six hits and no earned runs. His team couldn't bail him out on the bases.
Now, right-hander Sam Deduno can only hope to do the same but with better results in order to ease Minnesota out of its five-losses-in-six-games funk. The Dominican Republic native has steadily improved with each outing, keeping hitters off-balance with his bizarre, slow-rotating, quick-sinking fastball, building a 3.96 ERA and adjusting nicely to life back in the starting rotation after starting out the year in the bullpen.
"Over all my years of being here, to me he's the most improved," pitching coach Rick Anderson said. "From day one when he was here, we were hoping he'd throw it in the area. Just no consistency with anything. But the more he's worked, he's finding consistency in the delivery. And now look, he's all over the strike zone."
There will be an extra focus today in keeping the speedy Rangers runners off the base paths, particularly with Josmil Pinto, who hasn't played since May 24, behind the plate. Throwing out potential base thieves hasn't been a strength for Pinto, who has a slow-than-average release, Gardenhire said. And Texas manager Ron Washington isn't shy in sending his players. Armed with quick options like Alex Rios (10 steals), Leonys Martin (11) and Elvis Andrus (13), the Rangers are quick off the bag. As a team, Texas has been caught 23 times, but especially with Pinto in the game, they won't be afraid to take chances.
"You can't give them free passes because [Washington] has them being very aggressive," Gardenhire said. "They don't have all their hitters in there and he's got these kids running."
