Gant's 1st Twins start falls by wayside in NY

NEW YORK -- After losing two starting pitchers to the injured list in the past week -- Michael Pineda on Saturday and Lewis Thorpe earlier Thursday -- the Twins needed someone to step into the rotation as they opened a series against the Yankees on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium. So they called upon right-hander John Gant, their Trade Deadline acquisition from the Cardinals, to make his first start in a Minnesota uniform.

It wasn’t a role unfamiliar to Gant, who began this season as a starter for St. Louis, compiling a 3.76 ERA and a 4-6 record across 64 1/3 innings and 14 outings. He transitioned to the bullpen in late June, where he remained when he joined the Twins on July 30, in a deal that sent away southpaw J.A. Happ. In seven relief appearances in August, Gant posted a 4.15 ERA with 13 strikeouts against just two walks.

But Gant put the Twins in an early hole they couldn’t overcome in a 7-5 loss to the Yankees, surrendering four runs on three hits in 3 1/3 innings in what was his first career appearance against New York. He was limited to 61 pitches, which was roughly the pitch cap that manager Rocco Baldelli had set for him before the game, and he threw just 35 of them for strikes.

“Overall, I think John threw the ball well,” Baldelli said. “[It was] longer than any outing that he’s had in a while, and going through the starter’s routine to begin the game, maybe being in a different environment like Yankee Stadium -- I think when you add all that up, it’s asking a lot more from him than going out there and throwing 15 or 20 pitches. I do think that, as a whole, he came out sharp.”

After Gant retired the first six batters he faced, all four of those runs allowed came during the third inning, as he gave up a leadoff triple and a pair of doubles around a lone walk. He then escaped the frame by inducing a sacrifice fly and striking out Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo consecutively. Baldelli sent Gant back out for one more batter in the fourth and he forced Giancarlo Stanton into a groundout.

“I think they just strung some hits together, plain and simple,” Gant said. “Just played a little baseball out there and scored some runs off me. But [I] felt good about my stuff, felt like I attacked batters pretty well. It’s just that third inning, they strung a few hits together on me. Good bat-to-ball team over there, hats off to them.”

Though Gant had not taken the mound to begin a game in nearly two months, he said he didn’t feel rusty switching back into that mode. In fact, it’s the role to which he feels he’s best suited. When he found out a few days ago that the Twins would need him to return to his roots, he was excited by the prospect, feeling like he would be “doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“I would say [it was] not very much of an adjustment at all,” Gant said. “I’ve always thought of myself as a starting pitcher. Even in the bullpen, I try to attack hitters the same way and this is a role I feel very comfortable in. Hopefully I get the opportunity to stay here, make a few more starts for this ballclub.

“Getting the opportunity to start is what I’ve wanted, what I’m going to continue to want for myself, for my career and for this team.”

With the way the Twins’ injury picture looks, Gant may indeed have that opportunity. Though Baldelli could offer no guarantees, he acknowledged that a revolving-door policy wouldn’t be in the 29-year-old’s best interest. He’d rather decide on one role for Gant to devote his attention to, but whether Minnesota might be able to afford him that luxury is still up in the air.

“We do have to stay open-minded as far as what the near future is going to look like,” Baldelli said. “Every time we’ve begun to set a plan up for our pitching staff, we’ve kind of run into some injury issues there, so I’m going to wait before I make any declarative statements on John. … I’d personally love for him to have a general role that he can settle into, but we also know that we may not be able to do exactly what we want to do at this point because of the different movements that we’ve had in our rotation.

“We’re going to wait and see is really what it comes down to.”