Jittery first start

Durbin chased in fourth as Twins lose third straight

BY GORDON WITTENMYER
Pioneer Press

CLEVELAND — J.D. Durbin made his first major league start Thursday night in Cleveland.

The Real Deal, on the other hand, was a no-show.

The Twins' first look into the major league future of their top starting pitching prospect offered a dizzying picture of nervous command and adrenaline-juiced troubles. Durbin's start stretched just five batters into the fourth inning of a 9-7 loss to the Indians at Jacobs Field.

Durbin hit 96 mph on the stadium radar gun. But his still-developing changeup was a too-strong 88.

He retired six of eight batters at one point. But that was after four of the first six he faced reached base and before the final five reached on a single, single, double, double and walk.

He struck out sluggers Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner. But he walked the leadoff batter in each of the first two innings, and threw a wild pitch to the backstop on the first pitch after the first walk.

All of which is to say it was a fairly normal outing for a hyped and talented prospect making his first big-league start.

"It's expected. He's a young kid," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We wanted to see him up here, and we're glad we gave him the ball. Maybe he got a little taste of what it's like to face a very good hitting team and what it's going to be like up here, that you've got to pitch. You can't just throw."

Durbin, who made his major league debut in relief earlier this month, may yet earn that "Real Deal" nickname he gave himself in Class A ball. But as he said after Thursday's start, "I've had better days."

He threw almost half (29) of his 67 pitches in a two-run, seven-batter first inning that included three hits and a walk. He settled down to pitch shutout second and third innings, walking two during that span, before the bottom fell out in a fourth inning in which he didn't retire a batter.

"The first inning I was a little jittery," he said. "I wasn't real nervous, but I was a little timid still. I wasn't letting the ball loose like I normally do. As I got into the second and third innings I felt better and better. My confidence went up."

And then came the sudden end of that.

Afterward, 18-year big-league veteran pitcher Terry Mulholland, 41, offered some quiet wisdom to the 22-year-old right-hander.

"Ever pitch a game like that before?" Mulholland asked.

"Yeah."

"Ever pitch well again after that?"

"Yeah."

"You'll be all right."

Durbin might get another chance to start in the final week of the season, but that hasn't been discussed yet between Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson. Regardless, he remains a big part of the Twins' plans as early as next season.

"I hope when this is all done, he sits and thinks about what he learned and what this is all about up here," Anderson said. "It's not about how hard you throw... . He's got great stuff, and he's got to learn to command it and change speeds... a lot of things."

Durbin already was looking at the bigger picture after the game.

"I had fun. I had a great time," he said. "The outcome wasn't what I wanted it to be. I wanted to get off to a better start than this... . It's a building block."

Meanwhile, as the Twins peered into their future, their present slipped into a third consecutive loss since they clinched the American League Central Division title Monday. The Twins have come up empty despite scoring 19 runs in those games.

Of greater meaning has been the lost opportunity to start pulling away from struggling Oakland, the AL West leader, and wrest control of home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Oakland blew a ninth-inning lead Thursday afternoon and lost at Texas, which finished off a three-game sweep. But the Twins' inability to stop the Chicago White Sox or Indians during that span keeps Oakland tied in the loss column for the second-best record among division leaders in the league.

"The good thing about it was we kept trying, kept battling," Gardenhire said. "As long as we keep playing like that — I know it was a loss — we can be satisfied. It was a good effort. Now we've got to start getting some wins."