On Tuesday night, Twins fans might have witnessed a turning point in the team’s pitching philosophy.

It happened in the eighth inning of the team’s 3-2, 11-inning victory over Toronto. That’s when Manager Ron Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson decided this was Glen Perkins’ game to win or lose.

As we wrote in our season preview section, the Twins are going to give their starting pitchers longer leashes this year after being extra cautious last season, when they had five relatively inexperienced starters, and Perkins and Francisco Liriano were only one year removed from arm injuries.

Perkins had 91 pitches when he took the mound for the eighth inning, and Alex Rios hit his 100th pitch for a double down the third-base line. There were two outs, the Twins were clinging to a 2-1 lead, and Jesse Crain was ready in the bullpen.

Gardenhire and Anderson opted to let Perkins face Vernon Wells, even though Crain would have given them a righty-righty match up. Granted, Wells was 2-for-4 with a home run off Crain, but this was more about trusting Perkins, who had kept Wells hitless in his first three at-bats.

Wells got ahead in the count against Perkins 2-0, and then hit a single into center field, scoring Rios with the tying run.

Wells quickly stole second, putting the potential go-ahead run in scoring position, but Perkins got Adam Lind, a hot-hitting lefthanded hitter, to fly to left field, ending the inning. Perkins wound up with 107 pitches, matching a career-high, and Crain tossed two perfect innings for the win.

“Last year, it was kind of like you were pitching against a shot clock,” Perkins said. “You knew you had X amount of pitches, but this year, they’re going to let all of us go.

“[Gardenhire] talked to me after the game, and he said, ‘I had no thoughts of taking you out of that game. You got us that far.’

“Wells got up there, and there was no reason to take me out right there, and I appreciate that. It’s just nice to know they’re going to stick with you. It gives you even more confidence to be able to pitch.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.