CHICAGO -- Chris Paddack had an encouraging Spring Training after three injury-plagued years to begin his Twins career.
In fact, he even had manager Rocco Baldelli saying ¡°it¡¯s the best I¡¯ve seen him pitch ever¡± after his penultimate Grapefruit League outing on March 20.
¡°One way or the other, he did have a great offseason,¡± Baldelli said Monday morning. ¡°He had a Spring Training where I was looking at him -- I think everyone was looking at him -- and said, ¡®Man, this guy is ready.¡¯ He¡¯s very prepared mentally, but when you see him throwing the ball, it¡¯s as good as we¡¯ve seen him. The ball¡¯s coming out of his hand really well.¡±
Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t transfer into positive results in Paddack¡¯s first start of the regular season.
In just 3 1/3 innings against the White Sox, the 29-year-old righty gave up nine runs (all earned) on six hits, four walks and three home runs as Minnesota dropped the series opener to Chicago, 9-0, at Rate Field. Paddack¡¯s run, earned run, walk and home run totals each tied his single-game career highs.
All of the damage was done through the first three innings. White Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn got the scoring started in the bottom of the first by launching a 3-1 slider over the wall in left-center for a three-run shot.
An inning later, a sacrifice fly and a three-run home run from Chicago¡¯s Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Benintendi, respectively, made it a seven-run ballgame. White Sox left fielder Michael A. Taylor then capped the scoring outburst in the third with a two-run shot on a 2-1 four-seamer.
Chicago¡¯s three homers were all hit with over 104 mph exit velocities -- the first time that¡¯s happened to Paddack in a single game in his career.
¡°He made probably a few good pitches that they did hit and get some production on,¡± Baldelli said. ¡°I think he missed his spots on a handful, too, and they didn¡¯t miss their opportunities. They got guys on base and hit balls on the barrel when they did. I think what we saw was what we saw. There¡¯s no way around it.¡±
Postgame, Paddack said he felt confident in his preparation and game plan heading into Monday and got himself ready for the cold Chicago weather (39 degrees at first pitch). Ultimately, he felt the White Sox just did a good job of not chasing out of the zone and keeping at-bats alive.
¡°Honestly, the only thing I have is they put together some really good at-bats today,¡± Paddack said. ¡°They didn¡¯t chase. Whenever we were in zone, they were fouling it off or they put it in play. It¡¯s not like my command was off. I went back and looked at the outing. I was talking to [pitching coach] Pete [Maki], talking to Vazky [catcher Christian Vázquez]. My misses, you¡¯re talking about a ball, a ball-and-a-half off the zone. With two strikes, that¡¯s where I want to be. They just didn¡¯t expand. Whenever I tried to bring that ball ¡ª whatever pitch it was ¡ª over the plate, they put a good bat-to-ball on it.¡±
At the same time, Paddack didn¡¯t get much support from an offense that¡¯s still struggling to get going. The Twins were held hitless for 6 2/3 innings before left fielder Willi Castro finally singled to right field. But they were ultimately shut out by the White Sox, and as of the end of their fourth-consecutive loss, they had the second-lowest team batting average (.143) and lowest team OPS (.436) in the majors.
Projected to win the American League Central by FanGraphs entering the season, Minnesota is now 0-4 and sitting at the bottom of the division. That, of course, is about as small of a sample size as they come, and the Twins aren¡¯t about to start panicking.
But getting a win soon is a good way to help the team as a whole exhale a little bit.
¡°I've said this a few times, and I know it's not the most enticing thing to hear: We are four games in,¡± Baldelli said. ¡°It's been a challenging four games, no doubt. There's no way around it, but we have guys that are going to hit their stride and they're going to play great baseball. We have not done it to this point, but we have the guys to do it.¡±