The Twins struck out a lot in their series against the New York Yankees and in Tuesday’s loss to pitcher Chris Sale and the Boston Red Sox, but on Wednesday they found their stroke, scoring 10 runs on nine hits, including three home runs from rookie Eddie Julien, Oregon state man Trevor Larnach and Joey Gallo, who returned to the lineup after spending 10 days on the injured list.
The win went to starter Joe Ryan, who wasn’t as dominant as he was against the Yankees, but he still made a quality start and improved to 4-0 with a 3.24 ERA.
The Twins’ youth movement looked pretty good: Ryan pitched well, Julien went 3-for-4 at the plate, Larnach drove in four runs and reliever Brent Headrick, sporting a Ted Lasso mustache, made his major league debut. He allowed a run over three innings with two walks and three strikeouts to earn his first save.
Kenta Maeda gets the ball Thursday.
Extra innings …
-The Twins lost 5-4 in 10 innings on Tuesday. The Twins finally went to work after Sale exited the game, but before he did he allowed only a run with 11 strikeouts. Prior to facing the Twins, Sale had struggled against the Orioles, Tigers and Rays.
-The Twins have not had much luck in this new era of extra-innings baseball, or what Twins radio guy Kris Atteberry likes to call the “Manfred Man” rule, in which a base runner is placed at second base to start the inning. The Twins are 19-24 in extra innings since the rule was introduced in 2020.
-It’s good to see Headrick pitch relatively well because the Twins bullpen has me worried. This is essentially the same group of relievers the Twins had last year, so any additional help strikes me as a bonus. And although Jhoan Duran throws with incredible power, I still don’t think of him as an automatic lock to earn the save. When I think of Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase, I think: Yep. Game over. I’m not quite there with Duran just yet.
-The Twins and pitcher Pablo Lopez have apparently agreed on a contract extension that will pay the starter $73.5 million over four years.
-New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer was ejected from his game on Wednesday for having a pitching hand that was too “sticky,” whereas Yankees starter Domingo German, who beat the Twins the other day, remained in the game with only a “tacky” sensation to his. I think I’m more concerned about “dugout rosin.” The rosin bag on the mound should be the only rosin any pitcher is using.