Chicago - The Minnesota Twins had already been buried by the time Travis Adams got the ball Sunday at Wrigley Field, but he still found a way to matter.
Chicago had piled up a 10-1 win, doing all of its damage against Zebby Matthews in the first four innings. From there, the Twins’ bullpen was left to stop the bleeding, and Adams delivered the kind of long relief outing that can quietly save a day from getting even uglier.
“Honestly, at that point in the ball game, it was nine-, 10-nothing. It was just get outs, just tag outs,” Travis Adams said after Sunday’s game.
“Kind of fell behind hitters and stuff, but basically just throw the ball over the plate. Can’t make the game any worse than what it is.”
Adams worked three shutout innings, allowing two Cubs baserunners on a hit and a walk while striking out two. He also flashed a little extra heat, hitting 97.2 MPH and throwing three pitches above 96 MPH for the first time this season. Before Sunday, he hadn’t topped 95.9 MPH all year.
The extra velocity came after nine days without an appearance, with his last outing coming before the All-Star break. That break seemed to help him come out with more life than he’d shown at any point this season.
For the Twins, the value went beyond the scoreless line. Derek Shelton said Adams’ length helped protect the rest of the bullpen and kept Minnesota from having to turn to a position player, especially with the Cleveland series ahead.
“The fact that he gave us length, I think that saved us,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “It saved us from using a position player just with where we’re at going into the Cleveland series. The fact that he was able to go out and give us that third inning and extend to 45 pitches was big for us.”
That 45-pitch outing was Adams’ longest of the season, and his longest since his first MLB start against the Detroit Tigers on August 4 last year. Minnesota still views him as a long-relief option, even if the old minor league routine of pitching four innings every four days is no longer part of the plan.
The performance also fit into a strong stretch for Adams that dates back to June 23 against the Dodgers. He has pitched only six times in that span, but the results have been solid: a 1.86 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and a .156 opponents average. Over 9 ⅔ innings, he has walked six and struck out 10.
His command still needs work, but the stuff is playing. Hitters have had a hard time squaring him up, and Adams said he feels like he’s in his best run of the season.
“Obviously it sucks we lost, but just last couple of outings have been good,” said Adams. “Basically, just continuing to build off of that and just avoid the big blow-up outing and take small steps and hopefully everything goes in the right direction.”
Ryan Jeffers saw the same thing from behind the plate.
“He’s got some really good pitches, a really good pitch mix,” said Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers. “He’s able to give you length.
So all of that, and for him to come in and kind of settle the game down was huge. You don’t want to say it gives us a chance to get back into it in a 10-nothing ball game.
You never say never, but you just kind of get some stability in there. That’s always good.”
With the trade deadline two weeks away, Minnesota still has bullpen decisions to sort out. At this point, the team has only clearly defined roles for Yoendrys Gómez, Andrew Morris, and Taylor Rogers.
But Adams made his case Sunday. In a game that was long gone, he gave the Twins exactly what they needed: three clean innings, a rested bullpen, and a reminder that there may be a useful long-relief arm here down the stretch.
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