Sam Hentges eagerly awaits first close-to-home start

For a first-time big-league visitor to Target Field, Sam Hentges has some pretty incredible history in the place. He's pitched there but never allowed a run. He's hit there and never made an out. He's competed there with something big at stake, and has never lost a game.

But beating the Twins on Saturday? "That would be even cooler," Hentges said.

Cleveland's rookie lefthander grew up in Mounds View, less than 20 miles from the Twins' home park, and has invited a chunk of the suburb's population to come watch him face his former favorite team in a familiar ballpark. "There's like 35 [friends and relatives] on the pass list," Hentges estimated, "and I've gotten texts from a bunch more people who have gotten tickets for the game."

They all hope to see him relive one of the most perfect days of his life: The 2014 Minnesota Class 3A state championship game. Standing on the same mound he'll take Saturday, Hentges led Mounds View High to its second straight state championship, pitching a seven-inning shutout and going 3-for-3 at the plate, including a first-inning RBI double to give himself a lead in a 9-0 victory over Eden Prairie.

"It was awesome. It's something that I'll never forget," Hentges said. "We had a really good team. We had a lot of guys who went on to play college baseball and some guys that I still keep tabs on and talk to every once in awhile, but it was a super cool moment to be able to win the state tournament and do it at Target Field, because that was a really big deal back in high school."

It got even bigger after the game, when Hentges and his parents agreed to a $700,000 bonus to sign with Cleveland, which drafted him in the fourth round earlier that month. Cleveland's scouts were intrigued by the fact that the 6-7 Hentges had converted to pitching just a year earlier, meaning there was relatively little wear on his arm.

"It definitely helps, but it also makes the development process a little bit longer. But it's been a cool ride the last seven years," said Hentges, now 24. He arrived in the major leagues on April 20, gave up three runs in three innings a week later against the Twins, and has gradually become more comfortable with his new surroundings. Hentges hasn't allowed a run in his past three outings, totaling eight innings, including five shutout innings in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

He will try to treat Saturday's start like any game, he said, but having grown up a Torii Hunter fan, a Johan Santana fan, he knows it won't be easy.

"Pitching here again, it's definitely something that I have grown up wanting to do. It's always been a dream of mine to play in the big leagues," he said. "Now here I am facing the Twins, a team that I rooted for growing up. It's pretty surreal."

Randy Dobnak's sore knuckle set off a chain of transactions Thursday that will likely extend into Saturday.

When the Twins realized Dobnak would be unable to make his start Friday, they settled on journeyman lefthander Danny Coulombe, who has pitched in the major leagues in parts of six seasons, to replace him. Coulombe, after all, owned a 1.77 ERA in 14 games this year at Class AAA St. Paul, and Cleveland's lineup is lefty-heavy.

But Coulombe, 31, wasn't on the 40-man roster, which the Twins solved by moving Cody Stashak, out since May with a back injury, from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Then they had to find a way to put Coulombe on the 26-man roster. Righthander Luke Farrell, bothered by an oblique strain on his right side, was the answer to that, becoming the 10th Twin currently on the injured list.

"Luke has been pitching with this, but we're to the point where he's having trouble throwing," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "[Stashak] is going to need more time. He has received an injection that's going to keep him out even longer than before he got it. He won't be 100 percent anytime soon."

There could be more moves coming, since Coulombe and Griffin Jax, who pitched 4⅓ innings of relief Friday and earned his first major league victory, probably won't be available in the bullpen this weekend.