Gibson impresses in postseason relief audition

DETROIT -- Kyle Gibson said that he met with manager Rocco Baldelli several days ago to talk about how he can best maximize his contributions to the Twins at this point in the season.

As Gibson has continued to recover from the fallout of his season-long battle with ulcerative colitis and the associated side effects of weakness and fatigue, Baldelli felt that shortening the right-hander's outings would help keep Gibson more fresh rather than letting him grind out more traditional starts.

Gibson, the veteran, had no problem with that.

"Listen, I haven’t played here for 6 1/2 years to get this close to winning some playoff games to cause a fuss based on when I pitch and where I pitch and stuff like that," Gibson told his manager. "So wherever you think is best that I can help the team, that's where I'm going to go."

The Twins told Gibson over the weekend that there would be a good chance he would make it into a game in such a capacity on either Tuesday or Wednesday, and the situation came up in the seventh inning of Minnesota's 4-2 win over the Tigers on Tuesday night at Comerica Park. Gibson made the third relief appearance of his career and allowed one run over two innings.

"We wanted to get the absolute best out of him, to go out there and rip some sliders and some changeups and have his top-end velo," Baldelli said. "I think he enjoyed it. Letting him go out there and throw his absolute best stuff at these guys and starting there and seeing what happens is a good thing."

Gibson allowed four hits -- two singles in the seventh and a pair of doubles in the eighth -- but saw his stuff play up in the shorter outing, as Baldelli had hoped. Gibson's two-seam fastball touched 96 mph in the seventh, matching his second-highest velocity of the season, and he struck out four while throwing 32 of his 43 pitches for strikes.

It's an adjustment that Gibson is still trying to feel out. He said that he had to start playing catch around the fourth or fifth innings to loosen up and will still try to warm up in the bullpen in fewer pitches. His pitch mix was also different on Tuesday than it would normally have been for a start.

"I think that was the first time I haven't thrown a curveball in a long time, and maybe the first time I threw more changeups than sliders," Gibson said. "I mean, it's just about trying to maximize the pitches that I have right now, and in a shorter span, so 30-40 pitches, two innings, go out there and give it all I've got for a shorter time and pass it on."

Gibson had already made a relief appearance two outings ago in Cleveland when he entered in the sixth inning of a game and allowed a homer. The hope is that he can get one more of these short stints under his belt during the regular season, perhaps when the Twins are in Kansas City to finish out their September schedule.

"We're going to assess this going forward," Baldelli said. "I think it was a good outing. We'll see if we can do something like this maybe one more time with Gibby in the regular season and see where it goes from there."

So despite Gibson's 9.64 ERA in four September games, the right-hander still hopes that the change in his role can help him make that long-awaited impact for this team down the stretch and, potentially, into October. His recent struggles might have drawn his postseason status into question, but he insists that he hasn't been thinking about that too much.

"I'm not too worried about that," Gibson said. "I'm feeling good and I'm just excited to be pitching. I'm excited with how I'm feeling physically, and being such a drastic difference than from what August felt like.

"I'm just excited to be here. We’ve got a really good team. It's going to be fun to watch. I know I can go out there and get outs like I did tonight, so if they think that I can help the team in that capacity or throwing a couple innings at a time, then hopefully they'll give me a chance."