St. John’s baseball: Cody Stashak returns to mound for Twins after IL stint

Former St. John’s baseball standout Cody Stashak retuned to the mound for the Minnesota Twins on Monday afternoon.

It was the first extended absence on the Injured List for former St. John’s baseball standout Cody Stashak but he returned like nothing was wrong on Monday afternoon.

Following his stint on the 10-Day Injured List, Stashak took the hill once again and he was his dominant self, throwing one inning of relief of starting pitcher Michael Pineda.

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In typical baseball fashion, Stashak’s time on the 10-Day IL dated back to August 12 because of lower back inflammation as Devin Smeltzer was optioned to the Minnesota Twins’ alternate site as the corresponding move.

The right hander had to work around some trouble in the eighth inning, following a leadoff fly out, Stashak walked Victor Reyes and he then advanced to second on a wild pitch with still out out.

A groundout of Jonathan Schoop followed by a strikeout of former American League MVP Miguel Cabrera ended the threat for the Detroit Tigers and Cody Stashak picked up his third hold of the season.

Minnesota went on to defeat the Tigers, 6-2, and improved its record to 26-17 on the season, one game behind the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians for first place in the American League Central.

ALSO READ: St. John’s guard David Caraher wants to be ‘Like Mike’

Cody Staskah has now made appearances in seven games this season and holds a 3.38 ERA in eight innings pitched, allowing five hits, three runs, two home runs, there walks, but 11 strikeouts.

Opposing batters are only have a .172 batting average off of the former Red Storm star.

ALSO READ: St. John’s reaches back out to JUCO standout Michael Thomas

The Twins are set to play a doubleheader on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals beginning at 3:15pm EST at Busch Stadium before traveling back to Minneapolis to play the Cleveland Indians in a critical three game series at Target Field starting on Friday evening.