MINNEAPOLIS -- “Trust the process.”
That was Simeon Woods Richardson's takeaway from a night when the process wasn’t too friendly to the Twins’ second-year starter.
In his first Major League outing since May 14, Woods Richardson allowed six earned runs in 4 2/3 innings on Tuesday as the Twins were blown out by the Rangers, 16-4.
"I felt fine, did the best I could, tried to string it together and tried to compete the best I could,” Woods Richardson said. "It’s one of those days. We sleep on it, we roll over and we do it again the next morning and the next day.”
With fellow starters Pablo López and Zebby Matthews both on the IL, he and the Twins don’t have much other choice but to trust that the growth will continue for their young starter.
"It’s a long season,” Woods Richardson said. “I know it sounds clichéd, I know everyone can say that, but trust the process.”
The conditions seemed as ideal as possible for Woods Richardson’s return from Triple-A St. Paul. The Sugar Land, Texas, native got perfect weather -- 81 degrees, little wind and no rain. And the Rangers came into the game with the worst team OPS in the Majors.
But manager Rocco Baldelli was proven prophetic when he downplayed talk of the Rangers’ offensive struggles before the game.
"These are high-end Major League hitters almost everywhere you look, and if you make mistakes, I guarantee you they will make you pay,” Baldelli said. “So you’ve got to pitch well and you’re going to have to do a good job with this offense regardless of what they’ve done.”
In his defense, Woods Richardson didn’t get much help from his defense, though he pitched around two early miscues. Royce Lewis made a throwing error in the second and Carlos Correa missed a play he usually makes that was ruled a single in the third. Each time, Woods Richardson got out of the inning unblemished.
But the miscues finally caught up with the Twins in the fourth. Jake Burger led off with a liner to center that Byron Buxton misjudged with the setting sun in his eyes. He started in on the ball, then ran back and jumped, but the ball popped out of his glove for a two-base error.
Evan Carter walked and Josh Jung struck out. Then Adolis García lined a fastball into the right-field corner for a double, driving in the game’s first run. Kyle Higashioka followed with a two-run single and it was 3-0.
Even though the defense wasn’t up to its usual high standards, Woods Richardson refused to use that as an excuse.
"You can’t control that. I also didn’t do my part as well,” he said. “I didn’t throw as many strikes, it didn’t help them, so I think it was a combination of everything.”
With the pitch count at 74 through four innings, Baldelli might have been thinking about pulling Woods Richardson -- he got the hook after just 61 pitches through 4 2/3 innings on May 7. But the manager sent his starter back for the fifth inning, and it almost paid off. After a leadoff walk, the next two Rangers went down quietly. But the next three hitters went single-single-double, and that was it for the Twins’ starter.
"I was trying to compete, trying to attack,” Woods Richardson said. “I know I had two outs. I was trying to get out of the inning. I know it was a close ballgame so I was just trying to attack the strike zone as much as I could.”
He also was let down by the bullpen, as Justin Topa (three earned runs) and Jorge Alcala (five earned runs) came on and put the game out of reach.
Baldelli said the longer leash he gave Woods Richardson wasn’t due to fears of wearing out the bullpen. He liked the way his starter was competing.
"I wanted to give him an opportunity to pitch through it,” Baldelli said of the fifth inning. “We were down 3-2 at the time before it got broken open. It was a good time to stretch him a little bit and let him pitch. We haven't done that a ton with him and I think it's something that is good.”
The process will be on display again on Wednesday when David Festa will try to bounce back from his own dismal return to the Major Leagues, a 14-3 loss to the Athletics in Sacramento on June 5.