SEATTLE — Before Sonny Gray's first start in nearly three weeks Wednesday, Rocco Baldelli searched for a way to describe the intensity that the veteran right-hander brings to each game he pitches.
"If the scale is [zero] to Rich Hill, which is how I would probably measure that, yes, Sonny is pretty high on that list," the manager said, invoking another grunt-with-each-pitch veteran. "That's a real ability, to be able to [channel extreme intensity] and then return to being a normal human being soon after."
Perhaps it's oxymoronic, but Gray was his usual not-normal self on Wednesday, limiting the Mariners to three hits and no runs over five innings as the Twins clinched the season series over Seattle with a 5-0 victory at T-Mobile Park. More importantly, combined with Joe Ryan's encouraging, if unsuccessful, start a day earlier, the Twins have relaunched their starting rotation after almost a month of injury-and-illness uncertainty.
