CLEVELAND — If this turns out to be Mike Pelfrey’s final start for the Twins, the lasting image will be of manager Paul Molitor making a beeline for the mound in the second inning.
This wasn’t one of those uplifting chats to find out if the veteran right-hander had one more out in him. Instead, with the Twins well on their way to a 10-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night and a split of a crucial doubleheader, the first-year skipper was coming to take the ball.
A pending free agent, Pelfrey faced 13 batters, retired five and left with a 4-0 deficit in admittedly the biggest game he’s pitched since he was with the 2008 New York Mets.
“I just wasn’t very good,” Pelfrey said. “The biggest start of the year for me and for the team, and I didn’t do anything right. It’s kind of like somebody kicked me in the stomach. It hurts. I let these guys down. I was terrible.”
Hours earlier, Kyle Gibson (11-11) answered the challenge in a 7-1 win. Coming off his shortest start in nearly 15 months, the right-hander tossed six shutout innings and tied a career best with nine strikeouts.
With four games remaining in this wild-card chase, the Twins trailed Los Angeles by one game after the Angels’ seven-game winning streak ended with an 8-7 loss to the Oakland A’s.
“The positive is we didn’t get swept and the Angels didn’t win,” Molitor said. “You’ve got to take out of it what you get. The reality is the Angels finally had a hiccup. Seems like it’s been forever.”
At home this year, Pelfrey went 4-4 with a 2.61 earned-run average.
In a team-high 17 road starts, he went 2-7 with a 5.93 ERA. He failed to win any of his final 14 road starts, two more than Joe Niekro’s former club record from 1987-88.
Going back to June 2 at Fenway Park, Pelfrey produced just one quality start in his final 11 tries on the road.
Pelfrey walked two in the first but worked out of a bases-loaded jam. He gave up a pair of doubles in the second, but it was a replay challenge that took four minutes, 23 seconds to decide that really seemed to throw him off.
Rookie Francisco Lindor, who later hit a two-run homer off Brian Duensing, was called safe on a bang-bang play at first. Pelfrey insisted his foot tagged the side of the base before Lindor arrived, but the New York replay crew didn’t see it that way.
“I know my foot was on the bag,” Pelfrey said. “Maybe they need to get more cameras.”
After play finally resumed, Pelfrey immediately uncorked his fifth wild pitch of the year, scoring the third run. Carlos Santana added a run-scoring single that chased Pelfrey.
Indians rookie right-hander Cody Anderson (7-3) tossed seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits and walking four, in beating the Twins for the second time in a week.
Right-hander Ricky Nolasco, making his first appearance in four months and coming off July 13 ankle surgery, struck out five (all on big-breaking curveballs) in two innings of work. He also gave up a three-run homer to Jose Ramirez, who angered the Twins with his bat-flipping antics.
The Twins had won 15 of their previous 21 games on the road after Gibson’s solid showing.
“I don’t know how long I’m going to pitch in this game, but I’d love to have the reputation of being able to pitch in big games and have success in big games,” Gibson said. “I don’t know that this really starts that reputation at all because it’s still in the regular season. It’s fun to pitch in big games that mean something.”
Chased in the third inning at home one week earlier, Gibson walked two and gave up just four hits in posting his fourth quality start in six tries this month. Four Twins relievers handled the final nine outs as the Twins (82-75) guaranteed their first winning season since 2010.
“I think it’s significant, no doubt about it,” Gibson said. “One thing about this clubhouse is we don’t downplay a win. We celebrate each win. Everybody knows about the dance parties or whatever, but that’s not just a smoke-and-mirrors thing. To guarantee ourselves a winning season is pretty big for us.”
Follow Mike Berardino at Twitter.com/MikeBerardino.
