Daniel Zebulon Matthews, better known as Zebby, made the most of his callup on Thursday as he tossed seven shutout innings to help the Twins win the rubber match 9-1 and the series over the Miami Marlins.
Matthews wasn’t the only callup to lift the Twins.
Ryan Kreidler also got the nod and delivered two hits with three runs scored, while the struggling Matt Wallner and reliever Travis Adams were sent down to Triple-A St. Paul.
Byron Buxton, too, was not in the lineup because he is day-to-day with right hip soreness. No matter: the hot-hitting Austin Martin took Buck’s spot at the top of the order and joined Kreidler and James Outman by contributing six of the team’s nine hits. Martin and Outman also knocked in six of the nine runs.
Zebby, meanwhile, blanked the Fish on four hits across seven innings with one walk and five whiffs on 83 pitches. Kendry Rojas followed him and coughed up the game’s only run, although he still fanned three across two innings.
Joe Ryan gets the ball Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 20-24 after back-to-back series wins, which means they have leapfrogged both the Tigers and Royals to claim third place in the division. They are looking up at the Chicago White Sox (!) and the Cleveland Guardians.
–Did Wallner need to be sent down? He certainly had struggled at the plate (.167 average) and he didn’t help his case after he struck out four times in the Twins’ 9-5 loss to the Fish on Wednesday. This happened to Wallner in 2024 as well, but he regrouped at St. Paul for a couple of months, then returned to the Twins in July and was productive the remainder of the season.
–I was sure starting pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson was headed down, too, after another bad outing on Wednesday in which he allowed eight runs (six earned) on seven hits across just three innings with four walks. That is not good. He falls to 0-6 with a 7.71 ERA.
–The only bright spot in Wednesday’s loss was Buck, who hit two more home runs to give him 15 on the season. He is among the major league leaders in that category.