Twins lefthander Danny Coulombe has given up one run in 19 ⅔ innings as a reliever this season, and now one run in his first inning as a starter.
Coulombe was used as an opener in front of righthander David Festa during the Twins’ 9-8 loss to Milwaukee on Sunday at Target Field. It was a move the Twins finalized Saturday, giving Coulombe a chance to face two lefthanded batters in the first inning.
It didn’t work as the team planned. Christian Yelich hit a two-out double in the lefty-on-lefty matchup, ending a nine-pitch at-bat, and William Contreras followed with an RBI double.
“Danny is going to see the lefthanders one way or the other,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Whether it’s at the beginning of the game, the end of the game or somewhere in the middle, that’s who we’re going to be matching him up against.”
Festa, who was warming up in the bullpen before the game started, was prepared to enter as early as the fourth batter. The idea is that it gives Festa a chance to pitch a little deeper without facing the top of the lineup for a third time.
“I tried to treat that long half inning as if you were the away team and it’s the top of the first,” said Festa, who gave up a homer to his first batter and gave up 12 hits and eight runs in 4 ⅔ innings. “I mean, it’s a little different, but it had no impact on any of the results.”
It was the second time the Twins opted to use an opener this year. Justin Topa faced the first six batters on April 19 in Atlanta, giving up three hits and a run, before Simeon Woods Richardson pitched 4 ⅓ innings in a 4-3 loss.
“It’s been something that I’ve been thinking about for a while,” Baldelli said. “It’s been a little while now we’ve been struggling to stop the other teams from scoring. We’re going to introduce something new and try to switch things up. Not just for the sake of switching things up, but because I think there are actual benefits there too.”