By Edward Thoma
CNHI News Service

This isn’t the Golden Age of Complete Games that Bert Blyleven pines for, but there’s no question that Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is going deeper into games with his starters than has been his practice.

It’s evident not only in the pitch counts that Blyleven rails against with obnoxious

regularity, but in some of the more subtle indications of workload, particularly batters faced.

Pitch count is the popular shorthand, but I suspect batters faced may be a better guide to watch. Three times through the batting order — 27 batters — frequently equates to about 100 pitches.

More intriguing to me: Gardenhire is historically more likely to let a pitcher exceed 100 pitches than to let him face more than 27 batters. In 2010, for example, he let Scott Baker throw 100 or more pitches eight times; only six times did he face more than 27 men, and only once as many as 30.

This year? This month alone, in four starts, Baker has not only thrown more than 100 pitches each outing, he’s averaging more than 29 batters a game. Baker in 2010 topped out at 108 pitches; he’s exceeded that in each of his last two starts.

Earlier this month Carl Pavano made his way through the opposing lineup four full times. For all his workload last season — and remember, he led the American League in complete games — he never faced 36 men in a game.

There are some exceptions to this new pattern. Francisco Liriano was held back a bit after a stint on the disabled list. Brian Duensing had a very short start on a rainy day (which followed a 113-pitch, 30 batters effort).

But it’s clear that one way Gardenhire is coping with a thinner, less trustworthy bullpen has been to push the starters a bit harder.

It should be noted that this year’s rotation is filled with mature arms. The youngest of the five starters is Liriano, and he’s 27. There are no 22-year-olds feeling their way into the big time.

If there’s ever a time to be less stringent about limiting the workloads, this is it. This bullpen needs to be limited in use, and the starters (with the exception of Pavano, who’s 35) are in their physical prime years.

And — to be a bit cynical about it — if one of the starters does break down, the Twins have Kevin Slowey and Kyle Gibson waiting in the minors, plus Anthony Swarzak filling the long relief job in the major league bullpen.

They have, in short, more depth in starters than in relievers.

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Edward Thoma is a columnist for The Free Press in Mankato, Minn. Contact him at ethoma@mankatofreepress.com.