David Festa mostly impresses in MLB debut as Twins rout Diamondbacks 13-6

PHOENIX – As David Festa reflected on his major league debut Thursday, the hardest part was containing his emotions over the past few days. There was a buildup after St. Paul Saints manager Toby Gardenhire announced his call-up from the Class AAA team.

Once he was on the mound at Chase Field, he felt like things started to settle.

An 11-run lead by the third inning will help do that. Festa gave up five runs in five innings, but he received the winning decision in his debut, a 13-6 Twins victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Twins took two of three games in their interleague series.

Festa, a 24-year-old righthander, retired nine of his first 10 batters. After he pitched a clean first inning in 13 pitches, he waited 26 minutes before he returned to the mound as the Twins scored six runs. He pitched around a walk in the second inning, then paced the dugout for another 16 minutes. Following the third inning was a 20-minute wait.

“I still don’t really think it’s sunk in yet,” Festa said. “The buildup, a lot of thoughts, but when I went out there, I really felt fine. It was just another baseball game. But the buildup was definitely something. I was just trying to calm myself, take in the moment and enjoy it.”

Festa, the Twins’ highest-rated pitching prospect to debut since Joe Ryan in 2021, was one of the best strikeout artists in Class AAA this season. On Thursday, he was content inducing contact that missed barrels. He generated only six swing-and-misses.

The first hit he gave up was a solo homer to Ketel Marte in the fourth inning, a changeup that ended up in the Chase Field swimming pool beyond the center field wall. After Festa struck out the next two batters — the first two strikeouts of his career — he surrendered five consecutive two-out singles in a 32-pitch inning.

After giving up a leadoff double in the fifth inning, which came around to score, Festa ended his outing with a flyout and two groundouts.

“I told him he did a nice job, he should be proud of himself,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “This is a great step in a young player’s career and something to build on, something to jump off of and do all the other great things. You can’t do any other great things until you get that first outing out of the way.”

Festa estimated he had 15-20 people in the stands cheering him on, ranging from his family, high school friends and his college coach from Seton Hall.

“It was really nice for them to come all the way from the Northeast,” Festa said. “It’s not easy travel to be here. It’s a group moment. Without them, I wouldn’t be here.”

Festa’s long breaks in the dugout were generated by an offense that has scored at least six runs in 10 of 14 games.

The Twins loaded the bases with no outs in the second inning, via three singles, and it turned into a six-run explosion. Or maybe it was a Diamondbacks implosion. Manuel Margot drove in a run with an infield single in the shortstop hole. Another run scored on a catcher’s interference. Two more runs came in on a grounder to third base that turned into a throwing error when the ball was airmailed into right field.

BOXSCORE: Twins 13, Arizona 6

Byron Buxton saved two outs with his speed as the Twins rallied, taking away a typically easy fielder’s choice with how quickly he ran to second base on a ground ball in the second inning. He opened the third inning with an infield single on a routine grounder to the shortstop. Two pitches later, Willi Castro hit an RBI triple into the left-center gap.

Buxton blasted a three-run, 456-foot homer to center in the fourth inning for an 11-0 lead, his third homer in four games.

“The hard-hit balls were probably the story of the day, but a lot of the smaller stuff was great,” Baldelli said. “Buck was flying today in a way that really catches everybody’s attention. That was wonderful to see.”