{"id":286419,"date":"2024-09-04T09:41:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T14:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=286419"},"modified":"2024-09-04T09:41:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T14:41:20","slug":"festa-looks-consistency-in-potential-playoff-audition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=286419","title":{"rendered":"Festa Looks Consistency In Potential Playoff Audition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ST. PETERSBURG — The pieces have always been there for David Festa<\/a>. And he\u2019s continuing to put them all together at the big league level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some short-start hiccups have still been there for the rookie and one-time MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect, but his success in this most recent — and prolonged — stay in the big leagues continued on Tuesday night with five more strong innings, though poor run support once again held the Twins back in a\u00a02-1 loss to the Rays<\/a>\u00a0at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel confident,\u201d Festa said. \u201cIt\u2019s not an excuse, the rookie thing and all that. I\u2019m out there, and there is a reason I\u2019m out there. I need to give the team the best chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loss dropped Minnesota\u00a04 1\/2 games back of division-leading Cleveland<\/a>\u00a0in the AL Central, though the Twins still held the second Wild Card slot ahead of the Royals — with both teams well clear of the chasing Red Sox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three rookies are jostling for position in a possible playoff rotation behind Pablo L\u00f3pez and Bailey Ober, and Festa is perhaps beginning to emerge from the pack with his eighth consecutive outing of three or fewer runs allowed. He allowed two earned runs in his five frames against the Rays while striking out seven to\u00a0lower his ERA to 3.13<\/a>\u00a0across that eight-outing stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s those strikeouts, too, that are proving consequential and could serve him well in higher-pressure situations. From the start of that eight-outing stretch on July 24, Festa\u2019s 32.8% strikeout rate ranked sixth among all MLB pitchers to have thrown at least 30 innings, ahead of big names like Chris Sale, Yusei Kikuchi and Tarik Skubal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the sort of reason why Festa is so confident, and why the Twins\u2019 confidence in the 24-year-old continues to grow with every passing start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see the promise and see the excitement there is with him,\u201d catcher Ryan Jeffers said. \u201cThe next step of growth is just finding what can get the consistency rolling. Thought he was really good tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Festa said, there\u2019s a reason he\u2019s out there, and he\u2019s internalized that. That\u2019s why he speaks ruefully about the one-out walk to Josh Lowe that keyed the Rays\u2019 go-ahead rally in the fourth inning and why he lost sleep after the walk to Marcell Ozuna that ended his last start against Atlanta after six-plus outstanding frames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter your emailSign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been inconsistencies in his first three months in the big leagues, to be sure, but perhaps the biggest element of variance in Festa\u2019s game — his issue with walks in the Minor Leagues — has essentially been a non-factor in the big leagues, while the huge strikeout numbers have remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what I can credit that to,\u201d Festa said. \u201cI feel like I always thought I was confident and a strike-thrower. Obviously, in some outings, the walks became an issue. Then you look at a stretch and they were good. I\u2019m really happy with where the walks are at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final element to catch up in Festa\u2019s game seems to be the consistency of keeping runners off the basepaths — though the learning process in dealing with traffic is important now, while it\u2019s still the regular season, to gain experience in those spots for potential playoff scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there’s been some real ups and downs, which is to be expected with him,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cHe’ll show glimpses of how phenomenal he can be and how good he can be, and he’ll lose it for a batter or two — and then get back in there and strike out the side and finish the inning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was again the case on Tuesday, when Festa allowed the leadoff runner to reach base in the first, second and fourth innings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key strikeout of Jos\u00e9 Caballero helped Festa escape a jam with a runner on third and one out in the second, and another helped him complete the fourth — though an errant dive by left fielder Austin Martin and a sharp grounder that skidded across the fast Tropicana Field infield turf ate up Carlos Santana at first base, both for RBI knocks that put the Rays ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was kind of a little bit of a Tropicana Field-type of inning with some kind of interesting balls off the bat,\u201d manager Rocco Baldelli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Zebby Matthews experiencing growing pains and Simeon Woods Richardson perhaps showing some wear, Festa is surging — and the Twins continue to be thrilled with what they see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG — The pieces have always been there for David Festa. And he\u2019s continuing to put them all together at the big league level. Some short-start hiccups have still been there for the rookie and one-time MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect, but his success in this most recent — and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":286420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286421,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286419\/revisions\/286421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/286420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}