David Festa struck out a career-high nine batters over five innings, leading the Minnesota Twins to a 3-0 victory against the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.
Minnesota is now 3 1/2 games behind Cleveland for the AL Central lead, marking their closest position to first place since before games on May 18.
In his fifth big league start since debuting on June 27, Festa (2-2) allowed two hits and two walks while throwing 82 pitches, which was one more than his previous high.
“It really just comes down to execution,” Festa said. “I thought I didn’t execute enough important pitches in the first couple outings. There’s been guys on, but I’ve made that important pitch, and I’m just happy about that.”
Festa highlighted the need to stay in control as the lineup goes through the second and third times.
“Another really good outing from him in a packed stadium, in a place with a lot of emotion. He was able to slow it down really good,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Came out really sharp. He missed a bunch of bats today.
He had a lot of different things working, and then towards the end of the outing, he held it together really well.”
Caleb Thielbar, Jorge Alcala, Jhoan Duran, and Griffin Jax completed the game with Jax earning his eighth save in 12 opportunities.
Royce Lewis drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the third inning, and Manuel Margot hit a homer in the fifth off Kyle Hendricks (3-10), who gave up five hits in six innings. Ryan Jeffers added a run with a groundout double play in the ninth.
Matt Wallner followed Lewis’ fly ball in the third with a hit that center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong lost in the twilight. Right fielder Mike Tauchman was unable to react in time, and the ball landed on the warning track.
Trevor Larnach tried to score from first base on what was ruled a double, but Crow-Armstrong threw to shortstop Dansby Swanson, whose relay to catcher Miguel Amaya was in time for the out.
