Minnesota Twins Pitching Prospect Records Huge Save, Pulls Man from Fire in Fort Myers

For most of his baseball playing days, Travis Adams has been a starting pitcher. His goal most nights is to work five or six innings, hope the offense gives him some run support, and let the bullpen close the door. Maybe a closer even comes in and gets the save. 

Earlier this week, it was Adams who found himself in a save situation, and he came through with flying colors. 

Following a day at the ballpark, Adams was at his rental house, just relaxing and probably starting to think about the upcoming season and packing to head out to the Twins' Double-A outpost in Wichita. 

According to WINK news in Fort Myers, Adams heard a loud bang, and went into a friend's room to look out the window. The house across the street was on fire. Without hesitation, Adams ran out of the house. 

With the help of a couple other neighbors, they yelled to see if anyone was in the house. They pounded on the windows and doors, and a neighbor yelled, "Howard, your house is on fire, get out." 

However, Howard couldn't get out of the house by himself.

"We couldn’t get in," Adams told reporters later. "And so I had to go around. And let’s see, there’s another door. And so there was a door on the side. So I end up like tearing a little bit little part of the fence down and get back there and we end up getting the door open and kind of moving some stuff out of the way of that door and getting him out.

"My goal was just to help him out of the house, because I didn’t know how much of the house is on fire or, you know, what was on fire. I saw a big old blaze and fire and smoke coming from the house."

They pulled the homeowner out of his house and got him to safety, as the Fort Myers Fire Department arrived on the scene. 

Adams told the reporters he's not a hero--that he "just tried to do as much as possible and did the right thing." 

The 24-year-old from Palm Springs, California, was the Twins' sixth-round draft pick in 2021 out of Sacramento State. With so many veterans signed to minor-league deals and heading to St. Paul, Adams will return to Wichita, where he spent the 2023 season. He made 25 starts and pitched 109 2/3 innings for the Wind Surge. 

Known for remarkable control, in his three college seasons, he had just 25 walks in 151 innings. Of course, he wasn't throwing quite as hard then or getting as much movement on his secondary pitches. Despite a 5.66 ERA last year, he is a very intriguing prospect because he's strong, he now touches 97 mph with the fastball, and with another year of seasoning, could potentially have three solid big-league pitches. 

And who knows. Maybe at some point he could end up in the bullpen. And at that point, he could record the first save of his career (zero in college, zero in pro ball). However, I think we can all agree, whether he wants to call himself a hero or not, that he recorded a pretty huge Save on Monday night in Fort Myers. 

For much more on Travis Adams (mostly baseball-related), click here to find articles he has been tagged in on Twins Daily. And he was a guest on Twins Spotlight early last March. You can watch that full episode here.  

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