With Pablo López hurt, David Festa arrives for next major league opportunity

WEST SACRAMENTO — David Festa went to sleep on Tuesday night with the intention of being well-rested for his start Wednesday night for the Triple-A St. Paul Saints. And, apparently, he slept so soundly that not even 45 phone calls from six or seven different people within the Twins organization trying to reach him could wake him.

Festa wasn’t woken from his slumber until some time in the 8 o’clock hour when director of player development Drew MacPhail was banging on his apartment door.

“I figured my car was parked illegally or something,” Festa said of the door knocking. “But it was Drew.”

MacPhail had some good news for him personally — he was headed back to the big leagues and had a flight to Sacramento in just a couple hours. Of course, Festa’s opportunity came at the expense of Twins’ ace Pablo López, who left his start against the Athletics a night earlier with what the Twins said Tuesday was a right lat strain.

López went for magnetic resonance imaging on Wednesday and the Twins expected to have more information on the severity of the injury later in the day. But, at the very least, López appears headed to the injured list and Festa figures to slot into the rotation on Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, Festa was still on the taxi squad and the Twins had not announced their intentions for his start.

For Festa, it’s another opportunity to prove to the Twins what he can do after a good three-start performance in the big leagues earlier this year when López was out with a hamstring strain. In those April starts, Festa gave up three earned runs across 13 innings pitched.

He then returned to the minor leagues and dealt with some inflammation in what he called his bicep/shoulder area, forcing him to miss a couple starts.

“It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I knew it was the smarter way to go about it just so it didn’t become a longer issue,” Festa said. “The training staff did a great job down there of getting me back as soon as possible. My last two outings, I’ve felt good.”

And the results have been good, too.

He’s been throwing the sinker, that he started working on this winter, a lot more and is pleased with the feel he has for the pitch and how it has progressed.

“The last month or so, I’ve been really working on that, and now it’s one of my competent pitches to both sides of the plate and I think it’s helped with my overall results,” Festa said.

And now, he’ll have a chance to see it against major league hitters.

“Obviously, I’m bummed for Pablo and hoping everything is OK,” he said. “I thought I’ve been doing a pretty good job my last few outings and I’m looking forward to build off that.”

Correa scratched

About an hour and a half before Wednesday’s game was scheduled to start, the Twins officially announced that shortstop Carlos Correa was scratched with back tightness. He was replaced in the lineup by Brooks Lee.

Correa is often doing maintenance to keep his back feeling good. He has a history of back issues, twice landing on the injured list for his back, though the last time that happened was in 2019 when he was still with the Houston Astros.

Briefly

Matt Wallner was not in the starting lineup for the second straight day because of the opposing lefty the Twins were facing. Notably, fellow lefty Trevor Larnach started both of those games and manager Rocco Baldelli praised how Larnach has looked in his at-bats against southpaws. “He’s earning the opportunities because he’s looked that good,” Baldelli said. … Infielder Tanner Schobel, the Twins’ second-round pick in 2022, was promoted to Triple-A on Wednesday after slashing .292./.372/.465 in 49 games at Double-A Wichita this year.