PHOENIX — If first-inning body language was any indication, Friday's starting pitchers had a good idea how the Diamondbacks' 7-2 victory over the Twins would go.
Madison Bumgarner watched Byron Buxton's leadoff fly ball land 10 rows up in the left-field seats and seemed to shrug as he waited for another baseball. Devin Smeltzer watched Jordan Luplow's bottom-of-the-first answer, a two-run blast to put Arizona ahead, and fumed at himself for the down-the-middle fastball that made it possible.
"I just kind of got baseballed today," Smeltzer said after surrendering a career-high seven runs in 4 1/3 innings. "To be completely honest, I thought my stuff was the best it's been. … Other than [Luplow, who homered twice], there wasn't really much hit hard."
By contrast, the Twins rocketed hits all over the Chase Field diamond, starting with Buxton belting the second pitch of the game into the seats and including a couple of ground-rule doubles that cleared the wall on a bounce. Buxton had four of the five hardest-hit balls in the game, according to Statcast, but went only 2-for-4. And the Twins put 10 runners on base during Bumgarner's first five innings.
But the veteran lefthander, a three-time World Series champion who hadn't won a start in more than a month, appeared unimpressed, allowing only one runner to score after Buxton's leadoff homer and stranding seven runners in scoring position.
"We couldn't have hit the ball any better," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "But I don't think there's anything out there that [Bumgarner] hasn't seen on the mound, and he knows what to do and he knows how to get through things. And he figured it out today."
Smeltzer, barely a month in the majors this season but who had won three straight decisions, was flustered from the start, allowing hits in each of the five innings he pitched, and runs in four of them. Smeltzer gave up two home runs to the slump-ridden Luplow, fielded a bunt and threw it into right field to allow two more runs to score, and absorbed his first loss since Aug. 9, 2019 — 19 appearances and nine starts ago.
"He wasn't happy with the way he was throwing the ball, so he probably showed a little bit more frustration. But he's a guy that can show a little bit of emotion on the mound and handle it and refocus and normally go out there and get outs," Baldelli said. "It felt like it unraveled a bit on that play where Smeltz throws the ball away. Tough way to kind of let it go and set yourself back."
It wasn't just Smeltzer, though. Gio Urshela dropped a ground ball that led to another run in the fifth inning. Smeltzer, Jose Miranda and Gary Sanchez converged in front of the Twins' dugout in pursuit of a popup, but all three let it drop. Miranda fielded a bunt too far off first base to get there in time, and Smeltzer didn't cover the bag quickly enough.
"Just playing smarter baseball and being clean in the infield is always something we pride ourselves on this year," Baldelli said. "We've done a good job of it, but that wasn't the [game] we would point to as an example of it."
