Allen brushes aside credit for Twins' pitching staff turnaround

Phil Hughes pitched his longest outing since late April on Monday night and provided the Twins a quality start in what his manager described as a "bounce-back" performance.

Hughes wasn't happy. And that's a good thing.

"I need to be better," he said.

So does his team's hitting. Hughes made a few mistakes, including one that traveled 432 feet off the bat of Kendrys Morales in a 3-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals.

But feeble hitting nullified Hughes' outing on a night that saw the Royals pull even with the Twins in the division. Double plays by Torii Hunter and Joe Mauer and a strikeout by Brian Dozier in key situations sucked the life out of Target Field.

"Offense isn't in high gear right now," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.

On the flip side, the Twins starting pitching continues to give them chances to win on most days, even when the offense scuffles to score runs. That's encouraging.

Twins starters finished the 2014 season with a combined 5.06 ERA, which left them dead last in Major League Baseball.

The starting rotation entered Monday's game with a 3.89 ERA this season, ninth-best in baseball.

Observers of the team have spent the past two months identifying reasons that explain the unexpected success. That list is lengthy, but the effectiveness of the starting rotation belongs at the top in bold.

The rotation was an albatross last season. It couldn't be trusted, with the exception of Hughes. No other rotation in baseball had an ERA above 5.00.

Too many times it felt like the Twins trailed 3-0 before they came to bat for the first time.

"I was guilty of that quite a bit," Kyle Gibson said.

The road to respectability starts and ends with starting pitching, and their pendulum swing from awful to Top 10 in ERA has been a revelation.

"I think it boils down to confidence," said Mike Pelfrey, the poster child for the rotation's about-face.

Confidence, and perhaps a natural progression with respect to Gibson and Trevor May. Pitching coach Neil Allen's influence deserves a place in the conversation, too, though to what degree is a difficult thing to quantify.

Baseball people disagree over a manager's, or coach's, value in terms of wins and losses or individual successes over the course of a long season.

Allen's new ideas and approach clearly have made a positive impact on the staff, some more than others. People inside the organization also are quick to note Eddie Guardado's imprint, notably with his suggestion to Pelfrey to change his grip on his split finger/forkball, a tweak that has made a world of difference.

Twins pitchers understandably are careful not to dump on former pitching coach Rick Anderson, but change has yielded positive results.

"I think everybody here loved Andy," Pelfrey said. "I think sometimes when you mix things up and coaches get let go, it's just a different voice. I think sometimes that's what it takes."

Allen's voice usually can be heard stressing two things: pitch inside and throw changeups. Those are his two tenets.

Allen admits that not every pitcher has bought into his love of changeups. He had to "sell it" in spring training and found an ally in Ervin Santana.

"He was having a lot of success with it in the spring," Allen said, "so some of the other veterans see him doing it and say, 'Why don't we try that?' "

The changeup has become a valuable pitch for Gibson and May. They're both maturing as pitchers, too. They're figuring things out.

"There were a lot of consistency issues that I wanted to work out," Gibson said.

Consistency from the rotation will determine if the Twins stay in the race throughout summer. Santana's return from suspension should provide a boost. And perhaps Monday's start will get Hughes on track.

Momentum can be a fleeting thing in baseball, particularly as it relates to starting pitching, but the Twins starters are stringing solid starts together, as if they're piggy-backing on each other.

"Nobody wants to be outdone by the next guy," Pelfrey said.

Allen referred to it as a "ball and chain" dynamic. None of the starters want to be viewed as the weak link.

"It pushes each one of them," Allen said. "It's infectious."

Now if they can spread some of that to the hitters.

Chip Scoggins • chip.scoggins@startribune.com