Article: MIN 2, CLE 0: Berrios Dominates, Sets Twins Opening Day Record for Ks

[Tom Froemming]

Jose Berrios made his first Opening Day start for the Twins this afternoon. It most certainly won’t be his last.

 

The Twins’ ace set a new team record for Opening Day by striking out 10 Cleveland batters. He got 18 swinging strikes on 96 pitches and allowed just three batters to reach base in 7 2/3 innings pitched.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Berrios: 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 69.8% strikes

Home Runs: None

Multi-Hit Games: None

WPA of 0.1 or higher: Berrios .497, Gonzalez .253, Rogers .115

WPA of -0.1 or lower: Kepler -.102, Rosario -.109

 

Download attachment: Chart328.png

 

It’s worth mentioning that this was a reunion of Berrios and catcher Jason Castro. The veteran catcher called for an unusual amount of off-speed pitches from Jose today. Berrios threw 37 curveballs (38.5 percent) and 12 changeups (12.5 percent). Last season, he only went to those offerings 30.4 and 9.1 percent of the time, respectively. It turned out to be a very good game plan.

 

This was the first time the Twins shutout their opponent on Opening Day since 1970.

 

 

Berrios was excellent. Really. But anything he could do, unfortunately, Kluber could do better. It was a scoreless tie in a game played at a blistering pace up until the bottom of the seventh inning.

 

One of the big storylines of spring was on how poorly Marwin Gonzalez looked at the plate. In his first game as a Twin, Gonzalez broke up Kluber’s perfect game with a walk in the fifth inning, then broke the scoreless tie with a two-run double in the seventh.

 

That run-scoring seventh was started by a Nelson Cruz leadoff single followed by a one-out, broken-bat single by C.J. Cron. Marwin’s big hit gave the new faces a nice first impression at Target Field.

 

 

One of the other big questions of the offseason was how the bullpen was going to work out. Today, Taylor Rogers came in to record the final out of the eighth inning and stayed in to pick up his third career save. He struck out three of the four batters he faced.

 

 

What about Byron Buxton? In the sixth inning, he got ahead 2-0 and laced a double 113.4 mph for the Twins’ first hit of the season.

 

 

It would have been pretty difficult to expect a much better Opening Day than that.

 

Postgame With Baldelli

 

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

 

Download attachment: Bullpen328.png

 

Next Three Games

SAT vs. CLE, 1:10 pm CT

SUN vs. CLE, 1:10 pm CT

TUE at KCR, 7:15 pm CT

 

And One More Thing ...

 

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[HrbekRules]

Great way to start the season!

[FormerMinnasotan]

First off what a dominant performance by Berrios. Not that I thought that he would pitch badly, but he pitched way better than I thought considering the pressure of being the opening day starter.

 

Secondly how awesome is it that our new acquisitions were the ones that produced our two runs, Cruz and Cron both got on and Marwin Gonzalez drove them both home on a 2 run double.

 

For the most part facing Cleveland’s ace in Corey Kluber you really couldn’t ask for a better opening day win.

[Mike Sixel]

Love these summaries, thank you.

[Twodogs]

Dang it would be nice to see Berrios start like 50 games.

[Dman]

When Marwin came up to bat I was saying to myself automatic out here, rally over.  He hits a pitch out of the strike zone all the way to the wall.  I guess you have to leave spring training behind at some point.    I was happy to be wrong and that was a huge, huge hit under pressure.

 

Berrios was on fire and K machine today.  I hope this team continues to perform like this.  Very fun to watch. That was a good game for both teams just glad we came out on top especially on the opener

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

Winning streak! One in a row!

[bighat]

Great win. Berrios with a gem. Cron, Cruz, and Gonzalez coming through - just fantastic to see the new guys carry the load.

 

But hands down my favorite moment was the Buxton double. Not even close.

[dougd]

Marwin is now something like 10 for 20 against Kluber. And I like him on the left side during the shifts.  Allowing Rogers to pitch the 9th, instead of the automatic closer, was a nice move.  Maybe we can avoid the bloated bullpen and still keep relievers fresh.

[jorgenswest]

So many positives and Berrios dominated.

 

I really appreciated Castro behind the plate. The Indians were off balance all game. I don’t know if Baldelli considered pinch hitting for him in the bottom of the 7th but he really helped with that last out in the 8th receiving that called strike on the bottom edge of the strike zone.

[VATwinsFan]

Wait, so a short reliever can pitch more than one inning?

 

Who would've thunk?

 

I love it.

[108Stitches]

A Star is Born.... only with less Bradley Cooper and more sunflower seeds!

[D.C Twins]

Berrios becoming a legit ACE would be a game changer, because then we could actually have a chance to be relevant in he playoffs if we make it.

 

So excited....so hopeful

[Pardon My Dinger]

I can’t remeber a more encouraging opener, truly. I was waiting for the lineup to stony themselves into a boring, frustrating loss, but they did what they needed to back their starter up. I’m super happy for La Makkkkkkkkkkina, and cautiously optimistic that we may be able to close the book on one of the uglier chapters of Twins Baseball. Hope springs eternal, until it doesn’t, I suppose. Nonetheless, go Twins.

[IndianaTwin]

If we can limit the bullpen to 15 pitches per game, it should be a pretty good season!

 

[DocBauer]

I was at work, but got to watch some of the game. Just a few thoughts:

 

1] The Buxton double was like mana to me. He waited for the right pitch and laced it! Although he ended up stranded at 3B, his tag to take 3B on a fly out to LF reminded me how fun he is to watch and how dangerous he can be!

 

2] I really like the potential of Garver and the development he has shown, as well as his commitment to get better in all phases of the game. But I still think Castro was a quality signing and I think Garver and the whole staff missed having him around last season. I still feel Garver will eventually take over, but I think having Castro around helps the team/staff a lot.

 

3] This might be one of the best performances Berrios has had in his young career. First start of the season, first opening day start, could you possibly ask for more?

[Pardon My Dinger]

Said ‘stony,’ meant stymy. Freudian slip or autocorrect? Either way...

[ScooterDance]

Agreed on Buxton double being my favorite moment of game.

 

His ascendance to elite player is the most important development that could happen this year.

 

Also, 2mph faster than his fastest ever exit velo? Keep hitting them weights homie.

[Han Joelo]

 

Said ‘stony,’ meant stymy. Freudian slip or autocorrect? Either way...

You could have passed it off as some hip new lingo; I wouldn't have known the difference.

 

This team has mojo oozing off of them, traveling through the airways, and into the speaker of my phone.  And Astudillo didn't even play.  Just wait until La Tortuga is Unleashed!

[snepp]

Awesome recap Tom, per usual, even better coming off a fantastic win to start the season.

[twinssporto]

Tom - Thanks for doing these recaps!!!  They are greatly appreciated.

[yarnivek1972]

It surprised me to learn that one of the previous record holders for opening day strikeouts (with 8) was Brad Radke. Bert had that many on opening day twice, which was not surprising.

 

I don’t know what Radke’s career game high is but it can’t be much higher than 8.

[TheLeviathan]

Berrios is one helluva fun player.

[Lasorda_This_Out]

Berrios = 10K

Rogers = 3K

 

Two Twins pitchers = 13K..

 

Color me impressed!

 

[Bric]

Anytime you can beat Kluber it's big, but even bigger is the confidence you gain. Bux has all the tools, he just needs to believe in himself. Look forward to Pineda...if he can stay healthy regain his potential and Gibby can be the above 500 pitcher he's shown he can be, this team could have 3 solid starters. Really like Rocco he's so different than Molly. Rocco has personality.

[Kirbek]

1-0 is better than 0-1.  It's always great to beat the Tribe.  Bring on starter #2.

 

[rghrbek]

Tom, you rock, love these recaps thank you so much.  As good as Jose was, and he was filthy, I think it's always good to be level headed.  This lineup that Cleveland fielded, was week.  Very week.  Still you have to execute.

 

As for getting to Kluber when they did with all new acquisitions, huge.  The first pitch aggressiveness was not working all game, once we made him throw more pitches we had success.  Kluber is a vet and knew what we were up to, just glad to see we made a few adjustments.  Gives me hope.

 

The problem with Cleveland is we go from one great pitcher to another.  Hopefully our next two pitchers can duplicate what  Berrios did, as runs will be tough to come by.

[DocBauer]

I was surprised Rocco sent Berrios out for the 8th. He was pitching a great game, but so early in the season, and most guys ramped for about 75-80 pitches in ST, I felt he would be done after 7. I don't mean to nitpick, but is this a belief in the talent and potential of Berrios...who I have always believed will eventually evolve in to a true #1...a realization we have enough off days that approaching 100 pitches so early in the season just shouldn't matter at this point, or a disbelief in the pen?

 

Don't mistake euphoria for baseball to be played and a great first game win for anything else. I'm just tossing out a little light conversation.

[mickeymental]

bring on the yankees.

[jimbo92107]

I noticed the only scoring was done by guys the Twins brought in from the outside. Oh how nice if this team could generate offense from guys that came up through the system!