Halos serve as thorn in Thorpe's side in G1

The Twins have been looking for a stable foundation to turn their season around. The start to their season wasn’t what they expected, much less how the team feels like it's actually been playing. But the first game of Thursday’s twin bill in Anaheim was another instance of a game getting away from them.

Between Minnesota’s left-handed starter Lewis Thorpe and reliever Tyler Duffey, the Angels pounced on the Twins, handing the club a 7-1 loss at Angel Stadium in Game 1 of a seven-inning doubleheader. Thorpe, making a spot start, was the losing pitcher after he was called up from Triple-A St. Paul to be the Twins’ 27th man.

"I feel part of the team, but not really,” Thorpe said of his callup. “It's just tough coming up one day at a time. You see them for five hours and then you're gone. It is what it is."

The Angels made a dent in Thorpe’s pitching line rather quickly. In the second at-bat of the bottom of the first, Phil Gosselin drilled a four-seam fastball over the middle of the plate for a home run that put the Twins behind right away.

"From the first inning, we could tell that they were trying to be aggressive. And then I went out there and I tried to throw offspeed early, trying to throw them off the fastball,” Thorpe said. “But they were just swinging away, so I didn't really do anything about it.”

Thorpe recorded 10 swings on his fastball with six being put in play, while his offspeed pitches had 22 swings with just two misses.

In the second inning, the Twins responded with a bit of small ball. Miguel Sanó hit a leadoff double against Angels starter Alex Cobb and moved up to third on a single from Willians Astudillo soon after. Rob Refsnyder plated Sanó on a sacrifice fly to center field for the only Minnesota run.

During the next half inning, Thorpe almost made it out of a bases-loaded situation with the game still tied at 1. But Gosselin, the thorn in Thorpe’s side, remained patient at the plate when Thorpe worked his way back into the count with two consecutive strikes after he dug himself a 3-0 hole.

Gosselin pulled the full-count slider into left field to tear the game open with a bases-clearing double. Thorpe was able to finish his outing with two clean innings, finishing with four innings in total. He did not record a strikeout and allowed four runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks.

Duffey relieved Thorpe of his duties in the fifth inning, where the Angels tacked three runs onto their lead. Duffey was eligible to pitch in the game despite the announcement by MLB that he had received a three-game suspension for intentionally throwing behind White Sox catcher Yermín Mercedes on Tuesday. Duffey elected to appeal the suspension.

Manager Rocco Baldelli received a one-game suspension for his role in the incident and will serve it in Game 2 of Thursday’s twin bill. Coach Bill Evers will serve as manager in Baldelli's absence.

"Once the MLB decided that he was going to be suspended a game and Rocco had a choice whether it would be the first or second game, he chose to take it the second game and then he came and told me,” Evers said. “I've had plenty of time to think about it, look at what's going to happen and things like that. We will be prepared.”