Take any pitcher in baseball and feed them the lineups of the Yankees and Dodgers back-to-back and they too might wind up like Bartolo Colon has with the Twins.
Colon, a man of many meals, basically had the Yankees for lunch and the Dodgers for dinner in his first two starts since joining the Twins a few weeks ago. That’s too much for any pitcher to eat, so to speak.
The 44-year-old didn’t make it past four innings in each of his first two starts and was reportedly contemplating retirement if his start at Dodgers Stadium didn’t go well. It was so-so, but apparently good enough that he’ll give it another go Sunday against the Oakland A’s.
And it makes sense that Colon is sticking it out. His next two starts are lined up against the A’s and Rangers, who are tied with team batting averages of .236, which is good for second worst in all of baseball.
“It feels good [to stay in the starting rotation], especially going to Oakland, where I pitched for three years. It almost feels like home,” Colon said Monday night, via the Star Tribune.
As for retirement, Colon is now saying that he told his mom that he’ll try and pitch until he’s 45 in May.
Bartolo Colon said he's not thinking about retiring, at all. In fact, the 44-year-old promised his mom he'd try to pitch until he's 45.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) July 25, 2017
If Colon can’t get into a groove on the mound the Twins can always bring Kyle Gibson back up from Triple-A Rochester, where he was demoted to after Monday’s game.
Minnesota’s next five games and scheduled starters: Jose Berrios (Dodgers), Ervin Santana (Dodgers), Jaime Garcia (Athletics), Adalberto Mejia (Athletics), Colon (Athletics).
