Travis Adams returns to Class AAA St. Paul from the Twins with encouragement ringing in his ears

Travis Adams threw several pitches in the Target Field bullpen late during Sunday’s game against Toronto. Whether he realized it or not, he wasn’t warming up to go into the game.

It was “to make sure that he was still sharp because it had been a little time since he’d thrown,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.

In fact, it had been a full week, the last three days spent, for the first time in his career, wearing a major league uniform while he waited to make his debut.

He’s still waiting. Once Sunday’s game ended, Baldelli initiated an admittedly awkward conversation with the 25-year-old Adams, informing him he was being sent back to Class AAA St. Paul without ever throwing a pitch for the Twins.

“I took a little time with him to talk to him about it,” Baldelli said. “If there were opportunities to get him in there that made a lot of sense for us in the three-game set against the Blue Jays, I would have gotten him in there. But we played some tight ballgames. We were kind of battling the entire series very competitively, and we went with the guys that have been in those spots before.”

And now the Twins needed his roster spot in order to call up Simeon Woods Richardson.

“He took it very well,” Baldelli said of the chat, in which his message was: You’ll be back. “He’s going to be fine. Although there are never any guarantees in this game and you never know what’ll happen, I think he’s going to get his opportunities to pitch on a big-league mound and do so a fair amount. … I expect to see him back in the big leagues again, yeah.”

Not every such conversation goes that well, Baldelli said.

“You’ve got to make it up as you go; be as honest as you can with every guy,” the manager said. “But every conversation is different, and most guys, they’re in some range of emotional yet understanding. … I want them to leave in a good head space, one way or another.”

A difficult May in which Brooks Lee batted just .219 and drew only three walks in 26 games has ended. Boy, has it.

Lee entered Tuesday riding a 10-game hitting streak, the longest of his two-year career, and rewarding Baldelli for his faith in the 24-year-old infielder.

“There were times in his career [when] he would be more of a swinger, and now he’s recognizing [pitches], knowing what he’s looking for,” Baldelli said. “A lot of his successes relate to swinging at good pitches and shortening up occasionally and hitting one down the line.”

It’s really that simple, Lee said. Though he, like most position players, spends hours tinkering with his mechanics in the batting cages, the difference between now and May, he said, comes down to “being more comfortable with pitching. Seeing balls better. I’m more comfortable with taking pitches and taking strikes [against] stuff I shouldn’t hit early in the count.”

Eventually, that approach should pay off with more walks; Lee has only one during his hitting streak but is making more solid contact.

“That’s the fine line. If I want to swing, it has to be quality contact. If I do swing, I’m usually going to put it into play,” Lee said. “Sometimes, I have to lay off, I have to be more patient. You get a lot of off-speed pitches, so I have to be patient.”