Now over a month into his Major League Baseball career, Andrew Albers has seen highs and lows as he looks to pencil his name in as an everyday professional pitcher.
Coming off seven shutout innings against the Blue Jays last weekend, Albers ran into trouble Saturday when he took on the Tampa Bay Rays.
The left-hander from North Battleford got through just four innings and gave up four earned runs to the Rays.
Saturday's game couldn't have started better for Albers. He went three up, three down in the first inning including getting Evan Longoria to strike out.
A Wil Myers double led off the second inning for Tampa Bay, but Albers limited the damage and gave up just one run in the inning.
In the third inning, Albers gave up another lead off hit, this time a single to Jose Lobaton who came around to score two batters later on a Longoria double.
Albers was unable to get himself a quick inning in the fourth to give the Minnesota Twins' offence an opportunity to stay in the game. After getting James Loney to line out to open the inning, the next three Rays batters hit singles, scoring one run in the process. Lobaton then hit a sacrifice fly to put Tampa Bay up 4-0 and effectively end Albers' night.
He's struggled from time to time, but Albers' numbers are impressive enough that he's given himself a legitimate chance to be part of the 2014 Minnesota rotation. Four runs in four innings put his ERA to a still impressive 3.81, which leads the team.
The Twins have one of the worst starting pitching staffs in the majors and Albers, in most of his starts, has proven to be the lone bright spot.
