Twins reliever Caleb Thielbar wins 19-pitch battle with St. Louis' Matt Weiters

ST. LOUIS — The first thing Caleb Thielbar did when summoned to relieve Randy Dobnak with the bases loaded Tuesday was to walk in a run, the first inherited runner Thielbar had allowed to score this season. And so the left-hander made a vow.

"I was just kind of determined not to [allow] another one," Thielbar said, and wow, did he mean it.

Up came Matt Weiters, who worked the count, after nine pitches, to 3-2. So Thielbar threw a strike. And another one. And another one.

On and on it went, Thielbar whistling fastballs into the strike zone and Wieters fouling them off, until he finally drove one to center field for the third out. On the 19th pitch.

"I don't think I've ever seen an at-bat like that before," said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli.

It's the most pitches ever thrown in one at-bat by a Twins' pitcher since at least 1980, according to baseball-reference.com, and it's the third-most pitches in one at-bat by any team since 1988. Seattle's Darren Bragg singled off Brad Radke on the 17th pitch in 1995, the previous high for a Twins pitcher.

"It's wild. I mean, it just got to a point mentally" where he wouldn't give in, said Thielbar, who threw 10 consecutive strikes to keep Wieters from walking. "The longer you go, the more I feel the advantage shifts to the hitter. [He] barely fouled off a couple of curveballs, then chopped a couple of fastballs, and as it wore on, started hitting the ball harder and harder. Luckily, when he did put it in play, it was to center field. If it had been anywhere else, it may have gone out."

Thielbar threw three curveballs early in the at-bat, and three sliders, two of them late. The other 13 pitches were fastballs, which Wieters, a former catcher, said he was trying not to anticipate. "That's the hardest part of it for me — try and guess, or look for a pitch," Wieters said. "We were able to lock in and hit whatever he was going to throw."

It made Thielbar the talk of the dugout. "Everyone that came in, all of the other pitchers, were like, "I can't believe that actually happened,' " Thielbar said. "It was kind of cool to be a part of it."

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This two-day, two-game series was condensed into a drive-by doubleheader in order to give St. Louis an off day on Wednesday — their last of the season. It gives the Twins a rare two-day break without a game, but also a glimpse into how close the Cardinals' season — and perhaps the entire MLB season — came to collapse.

"To be honest, we were probably pretty close [to shutting down] as a league because of the Cardinals' and Marlins' situations," Baldelli said of the series of positive coronavirus tests that idled Miami for eight days and St. Louis for 16. "Who's to say? But it seems like if there were any more situations like that, another team or two, I don't know if any of us would still be playing baseball right now."

The Cardinals are still playing, and still paying for the viral outbreak. Tuesday's games were their seventh doubleheader in the 25 days since they were cleared to return, and they have had one day off. After Wednesday's break, they will play 23 games over the season's final 18 days, with four doubleheaders in the next nine days alone. The Twins have 15 games in that time.

"All it takes is to look across the field to see what another team's reality is, and believe me, we're thankful that we've been able to avoid that so far. Cross our fingers," Baldelli said. "That's why we've got to stay really intent on doing the right thing every day, and making good decisions."

The Twins' manager sounded amazed that both St. Louis and Miami are in playoff position. "The Cardinals and Marlins have gotten back to where they're at by just kind of putting their heads down and dealing with things as they come," Baldelli said. "I'm sure it has not been easy for them. But here they are."

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Injury updates:

• Jake Odorizzi will throw another simulated game in St. Paul before being activated, Baldelli said, but "could be slotted in [the rotation] at some point in the middle of the month." Once he returns from being hit by a line drive in Kansas City, and with Homer Bailey's return possible before the season ends, "you go, 'Oh man, are we going to have too many starters?' Baldelli said. "We'll have to get creative when it does."

• Max Kepler, out with a groin injury, "is still on track. He was moving around — I don't know if I would call it sprinting, but he was running," Baldelli said. "I would anticipate him being back either when the 10 days are up [on Sunday], or in the next day or two after that."

• Nelson Cruz returned to the lineup after missing two days while resting his sore hip.

• Jorge Alcalá left Game 2 after being hit on the shin by a ground ball, but it's probably just a bruise, Baldelli said. "He didn't look totally comfortable. We just had to get him out of the game and get him looked at," he said.

• Luis Arraez left Game 1 after singling in the fourth, his third at-bat. Baldelli said he was not hurt; he's just being cautious with Arraez's sore right knee.