"Please find shelter along the concourses," the Target Field scoreboard warned as heavy rain began to fall Tuesday. The alert came a half-inning too late to stop the deluge that struck the Twins' bullpen.
Chris Archer pitched four shutout innings, dancing off the mound in celebration after striking out Justin Turner to finish his night, in his first start as a Twin. But the Dodgers sent 12 hitters to the plate in an ugly eighth inning, scoring six runs to turn a tie game into an eventual 7-2 rout of the Twins that ended after midnight.
"It's a challenge. It's a good, healthy challenge to face that team, because they are going to make you make very good pitches, over and over," said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, whose team walked nine Dodger hitters, six in the final two innings. "If you find the middle of the [strike] zone, they'll probably put a good swing on it."
Archer, a late training-camp addition to the staff, had no trouble with the Dodgers, holding them to just two hits and no walks in four innings, striking out three. His fist-pumping joy was for good reason, he said.
"Just excitement. You know, I haven't been healthy in some time," said the veteran righthander. "I had a lot of friends and family here. The team has done a good job helping me understand what makes me great. Wes [Johnson, the Twins' pitching coach] has instilled the utmost confidence in me. And it was just a moment where I was just really excited."
The prospect of a pre-injury, Tampa Bay Rays-like Archer pitching every fifth day or so has his manager, who was a Rays coach at the time, really excited, too.
"He resembles that guy very closely," Rocco Baldelli said. "We're talking about a guy that, for a while, he has had one of the more electric arms in our game."
