The Twins came away victorious tonight 3-2 vs. the Chicago White Sox in their first home night game of the 2023 season. The win came on an error on what was supposed to just be a sacrifice bunt by Michael A. Taylor. Instead, the throw from the pitcher hit Taylor on the helmet and went into right field allowing pinch runner  Willi Castro to score on the play. Taylor was given credit for a hit but no RBI as the run scored because of the error..

Pablo Lopez, who struggled in the first inning, was otherwise fantastic in his home debut going 7 2/3 innings, giving up two runs and striking out ten on 98 pitches. He retired the last 23 hitters he faced. The pitch count is really impressive when you take into account that 31 of those were in the first inning. 
 

The Twins are now 7-4 with the series rubber match coming up tomorrow against the White Sox.
 

The win comes on Kenta Maeda’s 35th birthday.

The Twins right hander, who missed pitching on his birthday by a day, was born on this date in 1988 in Tadaoka, Osaka Japan. He became the youngest pitcher in Japanese baseball history to achieve the pitching Triple Crown in the same year. He won the Sawamura Award for the second time in 2015.

Maeda was selected out of PL Gakuen Senior High School by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan's 2006 NPB Draft (NPB). He played in Japan through the 2015 season.
 

On January 7, 2016, Maeda signed an eight-year, $25 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers that included $10 million per year in incentives.

On February 10, 2020, the Dodgers traded Maeda, Jaír Camargo and cash considerations to the Minnesota Twins for Brusdar Graterol, Luke Raley and the 67th draft pick in the 2020 MLB draft.

In the 2020 season, his first with the Twins, he was 6–1 with a 2.70 ERA.^[He led the major leagues in WHIP (0.750) and finished as the runner-up for the 2020 American League Cy Young Award behind Shane Bieber. In the 2021 season, Maeda went 6–5 with a 4.66 ERA until a UCL year ended his season prematurely. On September 1, 2021, it was announced that Maeda had undergone Tommy John surgery and would miss the entire 2022 season. He is back this year and pitching pretty well so far.

Maeda lives in Tokyo  with his wife, Saho, daughter and son in the offseason. A fan of the reality television show Terrace House since its beginning, Maeda personally asked to be a guest commentator and appeared in episode 45 of the Opening New Doors season.

I hope you enjoyed this read. Come back for more tomorrow.