When it was over, Aaron Slegers said, the emotion became almost overwhelming. As he walked off the field, having pitched one of the best big-league debuts in Twins history, "I was about as close as you can cry without crying," the rookie righthander said. "Walking off the mound, and the crowd was standing up and applauding. That was pretty special."
His teammates probably felt something similar. Just when the Twins' pursuit of the AL Central leaders appeared entirely futile, just when they stood on the verge of being swept in all 10 home games against first-place Cleveland, Slegers arrived to keep hope, however faint and illogical, alive. The rookie righthander, the fourth starting pitcher to make his major-league debut with the Twins this summer, faced 22 batters and recorded 19 outs Thursday, allowing only two hits and two runs in 6⅓ innings as the Twins held on for a 4-2 victory — their one and only victory at Target Field against the Indians this summer.
"It's the old, 1-9 is better than 0-10 kind of deal," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "To go as long as he did and pitch as effectively as he did, it was a big boost for everybody."
Came in handy in the standings, too, since the Twins lost the day's first game 9-3 to fall seven games out of first place. But by recovering in the evening's makeup of Wednesday's rainout, Minnesota moved back above .500 (60-59), surpassed their victory total of 2016, cut the AL Central deficit to six games and retained their spot one game out of an AL wild-card invitation. All largely because of Slegers, the Twins' fifth-round draft pick in 2013.
"It was much-needed," Molitor said. "He gained a lot of respect from a lot of people in that clubhouse tonight."
Probably a lot in the other dugout, too. Cleveland had outscored the Twins 65-19 in their first nine matchups in Minneapolis, but Slegers silenced that lineup abruptly, getting 11 outs from the first 11 hitters before making a mistake that Jay Bruce plastered into the right-field stands. But Slegers ignored the hiccup, and didn't give up another hit until the final batter he faced, Edwin Encarnacion, who singled in the seventh.
"I give credit to [catcher Chris] Gimenez. He made me feel totally comfortable, from an hour and a half before the game when we went over the lineup," Slegers said. "He just instilled confidence from the get-go."
The victory came courtesy of a tie-breaking Max Kepler home run in the seventh inning, redeeming himself for a misplay that kept Slegers from being the winning pitcher. Carlos Santana greeted reliever Trevor Hildenberger with a line drive into the right-field corner and Kepler slipped as he tried to field it, allowing it to reach the wall for a game-tying triple.