Twins rookie Jordan Balazovic impressing out of bullpen
Jordan Balazovic didn’t realize it initially on Saturday in the aftermath of the Twins’ 3-2 victory that he had recorded his first career win. It wasn’t until he got back to his phone and saw an outpouring of messages — along with a beer shower from his teammates — that it really started to sink in for him.
For Balazovic, once the Twins’ top pitching prospect, the accomplishment comes after a long journey during which he experienced unprecedented struggles on the mound last year, suffered a broken jaw as a result of an off-field altercation at the beginning of spring training and adjusted to a shift to the bullpen.
“He’s done a really nice job,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He has come right in and pitched in a lot of important moments and he’s fearless. He wants to ball.”
Balazovic was summoned to the big leagues the first time on June 18, pitching 3 2/3 scoreless innings that day. Since then, the Twins have shortened him up and started to insert him into more high-leverage situations.
He has a 1.38 earned-run average through his first 10 games — spanning 13 innings. His first career win came after a scoreless seven-pitch inning against the Chicago White Sox.
The move to the bullpen has required him to develop a new routine as he tries to figure out what works best for him to get his body ready to respond the next day. The results seem to suggest he has found something that’s been working.
“It’s the same game. Just gotta execute, right?” Balazovic said. “The more you make mistakes, the more you’re going to get hit and you’re not going to get those results. I can’t be walking guys, either, and that’s very frustrating. But for the most part, I’ve been trying to attack and execute my pitches and not try to do too much.”
The right-hander has been particularly effective against righties this season, holding them to a .097 batting average.
The next step in his development, Baldelli said, is figuring out what will make him more effective against lefties, who are currently hitting .500 against him — albeit in a small sample size. Four of the eight hits he has given up to lefties have been for extra bases.
“He has good stuff. It translates really well against right-handed hitters,” Baldelli said. “That’s what he does. He has really good stuff to get right handed-hitters out. and in the moments where we’ve challenged him and put him out there, he has pitched well. … He’s still got a lot of things to spend time on and improve on. Picking up some new tactics and ways to get lefties out is going to be part of his development. But where he’s at right now, I think he’s holding the role that we have him in pretty well.”
Briefly
The Twins will send Kenta Maeda, Pablo López and Joe Ryan to the mound this upcoming week against the Seattle Mariners. They will face all-stars Luis Castillo and George Kirby in the first two games of the series.
