SAN DIEGO – A day after watching his team blow two-run leads twice in the final three innings, Rocco Baldelli was still mulling what he could have done differently to better protect those leads.
“Sometimes when things don’t go your way, it can be hard to deal with. How do you deal with it? For me, I talk about it,” the Twins manager said Wednesday. “I review the decision-making process with our staff. That doesn’t mean we did anything wrong. It’s just the way the game goes sometimes.”
But Baldelli made clear that one scenario was never an option: Using Griffin Jax in two innings.
With the Twins leading 3-1 in the seventh inning Tuesday, Jax warmed up in case Bailey Ober, who had retired 13 consecutive batters, ran into any trouble. But trouble came too quickly for Jax to get ready — Jake Cronenworth hit a bloop double into shallow left field on Ober’s third pitch, and Manny Machado crushed a changeup two pitches later over the center-field fence to tie the score.
Baldelli removed Ober, even though he had thrown only 83 pitches, and summoned Jax into the 3-3 game. Jax retired the side on 10 pitches, and Baldelli was asked whether he considered leaving in the righthander, who has not given up a run in his last 11 innings dating back to July 21.
“Griffin is not going to be the answer for every inning we have to pitch for the next six weeks. And he’s going to always be everyone’s first thought,” Baldelli said. “The guy’s really good. Of course you’re going to want to see him out there. But the guy just [pitched] four times in six days.”
Jax, after all, has pitched 55⅓ innings this season, four outs fewer than Cole Sands for most among Twins relievers, and his 1.79 ERA is one of the best in the league.
“In my opinion, it would be irresponsible to even start thinking about doing things like that with the guy, who we are going to need if we are going to accomplish good things the rest of the year,” Baldelli said. “He’s never totally rested, because the guy pitches a lot.”
