Wednesday night’s game promised to offer the Twins a glimpse at two of their brightest prospects. Infielder Brooks Lee’s major league debut couldn’t have gone much better. Starter David Festa’s second game, well … that was a different story. Lee, called up before the game after Royce Lewis was placed on the injured list with an adductor strain, collected his first two major league hits and drove in a run. But it came in a losing effort as Festa was knocked around for seven runs in the Twins’ 9-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers in the middle game of the series at Target Field. “Frustrating,” Festa said of his start. “Just got to learn from it. More frustrated that I really didn’t give the team a chance to win.” Festa, who debuted last week in Arizona, had a start that mirrored in first in many ways. In each, he gave up five straight hits in an inning that spiraled away from him. After two scoreless innings against the Tigers, Festa ran into trouble in the third, allowing six hits and five runs before he was able to end the frame. The big blow was Carson Kelly’s grand slam, sinking the Twins (48-38) into a hole from which they could never recover. The very next batter, Wenceel Pérez, also homered. Festa threw five innings, giving up two more runs in his final inning against the Tigers (39-47) as Colt Keith and Riley Greene began the frame with a triple and home run, respectively. “He threw a lot of strikes today. When there were people on base, he missed over the plate and they hit balls over the fence with people on base,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “They’re just going to put up runs.” Festa has given up 12 runs in his first 10 innings since being added to the rotation in place of Chris Paddack, who is out with shoulder fatigue. While his rough outing was enough to send the Twins to a blowout loss, they did see plenty to like from Lee, who got word of his call-up earlier in the day while preparing for a game with the Triple-A Saints. Though he started his night by looking at three strikes, Lee’s next two at-bats each ended with him standing on first base. “It’s actually uncharacteristic of me to take pitches. It was cool,” Lee said. “But I got it out of the way. I came up and was like, ‘If I get a fastball, I’m going to do some damage,’ and sure enough, I did.” Lee lined a pitch past diving shortstop Zach McKinstry in the fourth inning, bringing much of the Target Field crowd to its feet for an ovation. As he stood at first, a big smile on his face, the rookie raised his hand to the crowd in acknowledgment. It was his second ovation of the day after home plate Alex MacKay gave him some extra time to soak in the crowd reaction before his first at-bat. “It was awesome,” Lee said of the ovations. “I didn’t even know how to act. I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do right now.’ It was super special, and that’s just what the Minnesota fans are like. I’m just so happy to be playing in front of them.” In his third at-bat, he singled again, driving home a run. He finished 2 for 4. The Twins’ only other run came in the third inning when Christian Vázquez hit a solo home run — his third of the year — off Tigers starter Keider Montero. That extended the Twins’ streak to 21 straight games with a home run, a club record. “It was just too much today to get back in the game,” Baldelli said. “We’ve gotten back into a bunch of games. I think we should be pleased with the way we’ve done that pretty often this year. It’s a really good sign for our team. Today was just too much.” Related Articles Minnesota Twins | Louie Varland focuses on regaining consistency with Saints so he can return to Twins Minnesota Twins | Royce Lewis lands on injured list; Twins call up top prospect Brooks Lee Minnesota Twins | Twins prospect Brooks Lee, nearing debut, selected for Futures Game Minnesota Twins | Twins seeing ‘ideal version’ of reliever Jorge Alcala Minnesota Twins | Twins pull away late in win over Mariners