CLEVELAND — The first two and a half weeks of Griffin Jax’s season couldn’t have been much more difficult for the reliever.
There was a game-tying home run — on a good pitch — in the ninth inning to Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez in early April. A costly error against Kansas City. Consecutive outings in which he gave up three and four runs.
For a reliever of Jax’s caliber — he has been among the best in the majors across the last couple of seasons — it wasn’t likely to last. And now, over his past four outings entering Wednesday, the right-hander has thrown four scoreless innings, striking out nine of the 15 batters he has faced.
“The season’s six months long,” Jax said. “Everybody’s going to go through stretches that don’t go their way. Just got to keep showing up and trust the work you put in.”
On April 22, manager Rocco Baldelli brought Jax in in the seventh inning for the first time. He has been used in the seventh three more times since then after primarily pitching in the eighth early in the season.
While Baldelli said he thought they would work Jax back into the eighth inning at some point soon, right now they’re seeing what they expected from the reliever.
“We moved him around a little bit, and I think it really allowed him to settle in,” Baldelli said. “He’s missing a bunch of bats right now. … Just the way he comes in the dugout after these outings, I think he feels pretty damn good about how he’s going right now.”
Jax finished last season with a 2.03 earned-run average across 71 innings. He struck out 95 batters, improving upon the good numbers he had put up for the past couple of seasons.
“A six-month season, there’s going to be periods of time where (expletive) happens every single day. It’s just how you bounce back,” Jax said. “Don’t let that bleed into the next day. Just believe in the stuff. It’ll carry you over. Obviously I’ve got a pretty good history of results so again, I’m just relying on that to carry me through and know that two-week sample is not going to define my season.”
Gasper leads off
Wednesday’s lineup in Cleveland had a little bit of a different look to it with infielder Kody Clemens making his first start for the Twins and Mickey Gasper, for the first time in his major league career, hitting leadoff.
After beginning the season with just two hits in his first 10 games (.111), Gasper was optioned to Triple-A. Heading into Wednesday, he had four hits in four games since his return as he has gotten more consistent playing time with a rash of injuries affecting other players.
Hitting leadoff, Gasper said, is just like leading off an inning. He has done it some in the minor leagues, he said, including last year at Triple-A.
“Leading off is just your first at-bat of the game,” Gasper said. “It doesn’t matter if it comes in the third or the first.”
Briefly
Simeon Woods Richardson will start in Thursday’s series finale, which is set for 12:10 p.m. CDT. He will be opposed by right-hander Ben Lively. Woods Richardson gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings the last time out.
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