SEATTLE – Whatever happened to J.A. Happ last month in Chicago, it hasn't worn off yet.
Happ's first pitch on Tuesday landed a dozen rows up in the right field seats, setting a tone for yet another in a series of ineffective starts. The veteran lefthander pitched four innings, rookie righthander Griffin Jax carried the burden for four more, and the Twins turned in a dreadful, lifeless 10-0 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
"Nothing came easy today. They hit some balls hard, but even when they didn't, things did not seem to work out for J.A. tonight," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Some softly hit balls fell, but it wasn't one play or one inning. We didn't play well at all."
But if this account makes it sound like pitching was the Twins' biggest problem on Tuesday, well, let's not forget about an offense that appeared exhausted by facing Seattle righthander Chris Flexen, a pitcher they battered for six runs in five innings at Target Field in April. In the rematch, Flexen dominated the Twins the way that King Felix Hernandez used to in this ballpark.
"He's got some hop on his fastball. He comes up kind of directly over the top, so he's got a unique look," Baldelli said of the Mariners' bargain-bin free-agent pickup, who now owns six wins. "He can work both the top and bottom of the zone."
And he can silence the top and bottom of the Twins' lineup, too. Flexen never faced more than four hitters in an inning, never allowed a Minnesota baserunner to touch second base, and left after eighth innings after striking out eight, walking nobody, and limiting the Twins to four harmless singles.
That recurring trouble the Twins have hitting with runners in scoring position? It disappeared on Tuesday: The Twins were 0-for-0.
That's the sort of pitching from a baseball journeyman that the Twins thought they were buying when they gave Happ an $8 million contract last winter. And five starts into his 15th major-league season, Happ was the best starting pitcher on his over-optimistic new team, with a 1.91 ERA that was highlighted by his seven no-hit innings against the Pirates.
Something changed on May 12, when he was fed to the lefty-ravaging White Sox, and Happ's descent since giving up nine runs that day has mirrored his last-place team.
In his last seven starts, Happ has allowed 35 earned runs on 53 hits in just 32 innings, a 9.84 ERA that has now pulled his season mark to a career-worst 6.12 — a number that unfortunately fits right in on a team challenging Baltimore for the most hitter-friendly pitching staff in the league.
"I don't think he looks drastically different than before. His velocity is actually a tick up from early in the year," Baldelli said. "It's probably execution more than anything else. He was living on the edges [before]. Today, some of the pitches were middle-middle, and that's going to be an issue at this level."
J.P. Crawford proved it on pitch No. 1, a fastball that pierced the middle of the plate until Crawford drilled it into the empty seats in right. That led to one of the most chaotic starts of Happ's season.
A walk to open the second inning was followed by an infield hit when Happ didn't cover first base. Then came another single, and then a bases-clearing triple to the center field wall by .150-hitting Shed Long Jr. He scored, too, on a passed ball by catcher Ben Rohrtvedt moments later.
Three straight hits to open the fourth inning produced another run and convinced Twins manager Rocco Baldelli that four innings and 84 pitches was enough. Jax struck out the side in his first inning, but gave up runs in each of the next three, including home runs to Luis Torrens and Ty France, to complete the grizzly game.
He threw 93 pitches to do it, most by a Twins reliever since Andrew Albers needed 108 against the Astros on Aug. 11, 2016. That was a kamikaze contribution that Baldelli took time to salute.
"In a game like this, it was exactly what we needed from Griff. These are the kind of games, as hard as they can be, where you really can't use three or four guys out of your bullpen," Baldelli said. "You've got to find a way to get some innings, and Griffin threw a bunch of pitches to get us through four innings.
Jax's consolation prize after throwing even more pitches than Happ? An almost certain ticket back to Class AAA St. Paul, since the Twins will need his roster spot for a fresh — well, fresher — arm for the weekend.
