April 2, 2018

What’s wrong with Twins pitching? Absolutely nothing

Jake Odorizzi pitched well, Kyle Gibson pitched a no-hitter through six innings, but leave it to Jose Berrios to top them all after he pitched a complete game shutout, limiting the Baltimore Orioles to just three hits. He struck out six over nine innings and had one walk in Sunday’s 7-0 win.

If this is an indication of things to come, Twins pitching is not only going to be fine, this team is going to be hard to beat. Berrios was backed with 10 hits, including four home runs. Dozier hit two dingers, while Miguel Sano hit his second and Eduardo Escobar his first. Escobar also doubled in Sunday’s game, as did Joe Mauer. Byron Buxton had two hits and stole a base.

This kind of pitching, paired with this offense, and good things are going to happen.

Extra innings…

-Sano hit a home run, but he also struck out four times. I have him on my fantasy baseball team, so I was thrilled to see a burst of points with the home run, only to watch those points go away each time he struck out. As someone noted on Twitter on Sunday, if Sano hits 40 home runs, no one is going to worry about his strikeouts. But if he hits 30 or less that won’t be the case.

-It’s up to Lance Lynn to continue this streak of excellent Twins pitching. Lynn gets the ball Monday versus the Pittsburgh Pirates.

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.