Pitcher David Festa gets his wake-up calls and joins Twins in Sacramento

WEST SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — It was about 11 p.m. in St. Paul when Pablo López walked off the mound in Sacramento, and after midnight when the Twins realized the righthander’s shoulder strain would likely require a stint on the injured list.

David Festa was already sound asleep.

“I woke up to 45 missed calls,” Festa said. “I woke up to our head of player development [Drew MacPhail] banging on my apartment door. I was a little confused. … I figured my car was parked illegally or something.”

MacPhail informed Festa, who had been scheduled to start for the Class AAA Saints against Scranton on Wednesday night, that López was injured and Festa he had a flight to California at 11 a.m. By 12:30 p.m. Pacific time, he was on the ground in Sacramento.

“The position I’m in, you always have to be ready for whatever the team needs,” Festa said. Besides, he had even less time to prepare last June, when he learned the day before his MLB debut that he would replace Chris Paddack, injured at the time.

“I got to Arizona pretty late that night for a 12 o’clock first pitch” the next day, he said. “It may be more beneficial that I didn’t have time to think about it too much, but the fact it’s a quickish turnaround is fine.”

The Twins did not announce a change in their plans for Thursday’s series finale against the Athletics at minor league Sutter Health Park, where technically, Bailey Ober was still listed as their probable starter. But it seems likely that Festa will get the start, allowing the Twins to give the remaining starters an extra day off after a long road trip.

Festa has already started three games for the Twins this season and had excellent results, though the Twins limited him to two turns through the opposing lineup. He allowed two earned runs in 13 total innings, struck out 15 and walked five.

After being returned to St. Paul in late April, Festa pitched twice for the Saints, then was given a little more than two weeks off to allow some shoulder inflammation to subside.

“I felt it for a few outings. Every time I’d throw, it would feel good and then the recovery would be a little bit harder,” Festa said. “The last outing before I spoke up, I pitched well, but it just didn’t feel right. Between innings, it was super achy. I was waking up with some achiness, so I knew I had to say something instead of making it worse.”

Once healed, Festa pitched like the Twins’ top pitching prospect once again. In two starts, he allowed only five hits over 8 ⅔ innings and just one run — charged to him after a ball lost in the sun dropped for a double.

He has begun using his sinker more since being sent down. “The last month or so, I’ve been really working on that, and now it’s one of my competent pitches to both sides of the plate,” he said. “I think it’s helped with my overall results.”

Carlos Correa was scratched from the Twins’ lineup before Wednesday night’s game after reporting some tightness in his lower back. The Twins had no further details before the game, but it’s possible Correa has been affected by the hard dirt infield in Sacramento.

Correa complained that the molded spikes on his usual shoes are not effective enough here, and he tried metal spikes, too. But mostly, he said Tuesday, he’s having trouble feeling comfortable on this infield and especially in the dirt around the batter’s boxes and home plate.

Matt Wallner also wasn’t in the lineup for the second straight night, and for an identical reason to the night before: The Athletics started a relief pitcher, Justin Sterner, as an opener, and the Twins believed a lefthanded pitcher would get most of the innings after he was removed.

Though manager Rocco Baldelli said Wallner will receive opportunities to face more lefthanders as the season goes on — he has only seven at-bats against lefthanders so far, though he has three hits, including a home run — he is hesitant to do so so soon after Wallner returned from a long stint in the injured list.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pitchers allowed 10 walks, including three in the eighth inning that helped lead to two runs, and the Saints beat the RailRiders 7-5. Mickey Gasper doubled twice and scored twice for the Saints.