David Festa, Twins bullpen shut out Cubs for fifth straight win

Festa tossed five shutout innings while recording a career-high nine strikeouts.

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher David Festa (58) delivers a pitch against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Aug. 5, 2024. / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

David Festa put together the best start of his young major league career, tossing five shutout innings while fanning a career-high nine batters, and the Twins bullpen did the rest in a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs Monday night at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The win is Minnesota's fifth straight.

The Twins are now just 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians for first place in the AL Central.

Festa sent the Cubs (55-60) down in order through two innings and set a career high in strikeouts after recording his eighth of the day in the fourth inning. He ran into a little trouble in the fifth inning, surrendering a two-out double to Pete Crow-Amstrong before walking Miguel Amaya to put the tying run on. But Festa struck out Ian Happ to get out of the inning and end his day on a highlight.

Five scoreless and a career high NINE punchies for David Festa ‼#MNTwins | #MLB pic.twitter.com/BBP3fWG100

— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) August 6, 2024

The Twins bullpen picked up where Festa left off as Caleb Thielbar, Jorge Alcala, Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax combined to toss four scoreless innings to secure the collective shutout.

Festa improved to 2-2 on the season with the victory.

Festa left the game after five innings with the Twins (63-48) holding a two-run advantage. They got the first run across in the third inning when Willi Castro was walked and Trevor Larnach singled to advance him to third before Royce Lewis brought Castro home with a sacrifice fly to center field.

Manny Margot hit a 376-foot solo homer in the fifth inning to put the Twins up 2-0. That homer was off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks — who gave up five hits and two runs while fanning five across six innings in the loss — and was Margot's first home run off a right-handed pitcher all season.

It was a good day overall for Margot, who finished his night 2 for 3 overall with the homer and a single.

The Twins added an insurance run in the ninth inning when Matt Wallner led off with a double and Max Kepler advanced him to third with a single. Ryan Jeffers then grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, but Wallner was able to score from third to make it a three-run Twins advantage.

Thielbar got the nod in the sixth inning and sent the Cubs down in order. Alcala also pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning, needing just nine pitches to do so. Duran surrendered a double to Happ in the eighth inning but delivered another scoreless frame. Jax gave up a one-out single to Cody Bellinger but struck out Mike Tauchman and got Nico Hoerner to ground out to pick up his eighth save of the year.

The Twins and Cubs meet for the second of their three-game series at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday.