WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — David Festa fell behind 2-0 to four of the first six batters he faced on Thursday. All four of them scored, three coming on a Max Muncy home run. But he settled down in the second inning and, it seemed for a brief second, as if he could be on the Zebby Matthews path.
on Friday in Seattle, Matthews allowed four runs in the first inning and then absolutely dominated for his next six. Unfortunately for Festa and the Twins, that didn’t happen on Thursday and the shaky first inning was instead a sign of things to come for the young right-hander the Twins’ 14-3 loss to the Athletics.
The Athletics had scored just six runs in the first three games of the series riding a nine-game losing streak. They snapped that losing streak emphatically.
Muncy’s home run was one of four on the day for the Athletics. Festa allowed three of them, including a pair in the third inning. After his departure, Jorge Alcala served up a grand slam, which was Tyler Soderstrom’s second home run of the day. All told, Soderstrom drove in six runs in the Athletics’ win.
For Festa, who gave up eight runs in 3⅔ innings, it was a much different type of outing than the three he turned in during his call up earlier in the season. In those three starts, he gave up a combined three runs in 13 innings pitched, then returned to Class AAA St. Paul, where he battled some inflammation before coming back and pitching well, earning Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Month Award.
Festa was initially supposed to start for the Saints on Wednesday but instead was on a flight to Sacramento, taking the rotation spot of Pablo López, who suffered a shoulder injury on Tuesday night that will keep him out for two to three months. That injury has opened up an opportunity for Festa, one of the most promising young arms in the organization.
The Twins scored a run on Matt Wallner’s third home run of the season and two more in the seventh on RBI knocks from Ty France and Brooks Lee.
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