Wednesday night’s game promised to offer the Twins a glimpse at two of their brightest prospects.

Infielder Brooks Lee’s major league debut couldn’t have gone much better. Starter David Festa’s second game, well … that was a different story.

Lee, called up before Wednesday night’s game, collected his first two major league career hits and drove in a run. But Festa was knocked around for seven runs in the Twins’ 9-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers in the middle game of the series at Target Field.

Festa, who debuted last week in Arizona, had a start that mirrored in first in many ways. Only in this one, he didn’t have the same run support that earned him his first career win last time out.

After two scoreless innings, Festa ran into trouble in the third, allowing six hits — and five runs — before he was able to escape the frame. He had a similar inning that spiraled in his last start, giving up four runs in the fourth inning last Thursday.

The big blow in the inning was a Carson Kelly grand slam, sinking the Twins (48-38) into a hole from which they could never recover. The very next batter, Wenceel Pérez, went back-to-back with him.

Festa would pitch five innings in his start, giving up two more runs in his final inning of work as Colt Keith and Riley Greene began the frame with a triple and home run respectively.

The starter has now given up 12 runs in his first 10 innings of work in the major leagues since being added to the rotation in place of Chris Paddack, who is out with shoulder fatigue.

While his rough outing was enough to send the Twins to a blowout loss, they did see plenty to like from Lee, who got word of his call up earlier in the day on Wednesday while preparing for a game with the Triple-A Saints.

Though he started his night by looking at strike three, Lee’s second and third at-bats each ended with him standing on first base.

Lee lined a pitch past diving shortstop Zach McKinstry in the fourth inning, bringing much of the Target Field crowd to its feet for an ovation. As he stood at first, a big smile on his face, the rookie raised his hand to the crowd in acknowledgement.

In his next at-bat, he singled, bringing home a run. He finished the day 2 for 4.

The Twins’ only other run came in the third inning when Christian Vázquez hit a solo home run, his third of the year. That extended their streak to 21 straight games with a home run, a club record.

Related Articles

Royce Lewis lands on injured list; Twins call up top prospect Brooks Lee

Twins prospect Brooks Lee, nearing debut, selected for Futures Game

Twins seeing ‘ideal version’ of reliever Jorge Alcala

Twins pull away late in win over Mariners

Twins’ Ryan Jeffers taking spring training approach to right himself