Twins 8, Astros 2: Bats Erupt, Varland Throws a Gem, Twins Win the Series

[Thiéres Rabelo]

In what might have been the Twins’ best, most dominant display of the season, the bats came back to life after a cold game on Tuesday. Louie Varland tossed a gem, and Minnesota crushed the Astros in Houston to secure the series win and the season series victory over the World Series champs.

Image courtesy of Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Louie Varland, 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (86 pitches, 66 strikes, 76.7%)
Home Runs: none
Top 3 WPA: Louie Varland (.229), Donovan Solano (.184), Ryan Jeffers (.095)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Early offense (finally!) delivers with the bases loaded
Rookie starter Hunter Brown took the mound for Houston, hoping to carry on his solid season thus far. Instead, the Twins’ offense drove his pitch count up early and did some bases-loaded damage to back up Louie Varland. Though the offense went down in order in the first two innings of the game, a 12-pitch at-bat from Alex Kirilloff in the first had Brown reaching 21 pitches to end the inning. Meanwhile, Varland needed only 17 pitches to cruise through two, and he got some run support right away.

The bottom third of the Twins’ lineup ambushed Brown in the third, with the first three Minnesota batters reaching: after Max Kepler and Willi Castro hit back-to-back singles, Michael A. Taylor drew a four-pitch walk to load them up. Before tonight’s game, the Twins had gone 5-for-46 (.109) with the bases juiced this season – the worst batting average in said situations. Could they break the slump?

Édouard Julien struck out next for the first out, but Donovan Solano didn’t waste his opportunity and snapped a team 0-for-14 skid with the bases loaded. He slapped a single to shallow right to score Kepler and Castro and send Taylor to third. Then, Kirilloff came through with a chopper to the gap at short to push Taylor across and make it 3-0 Minnesota.

Bats cash in with the bases loaded again; Varland still cruising
Despite closing in on 80 pitches, Brown remained in the game, and the Twins took advantage of that once again. After coming out of the fourth empty-handed, Minnesota’s offense added on in the fifth. Solano and Kyle Farmer reached on a one-out walk and a two-out single. But with Brown surpassing the 100-pitch mark, he was pulled from the game with two outs.

Facing reliever Parker Mushinski, Joey Gallo got hit in the elbow on the very first pitch of the at-bat, and suddenly, the bases were loaded again. Red-hot Jeffers, who had been slashing .400/.500/.867 in the previous seven games, made Mushinski pay: he smacked a long double to center that would’ve been a bases-clearing hit had it not one-hopped into the bullpen and been ruled a ground-rule double. Solano and Farmer scored, making it 5-0 Twins. This was the first time in the season that the Twins got two bases-loaded hits in the same game.

Varland continued to dominate the Astros lineup with ease, completing five scoreless on only 53 pitches. He also continued to be rewarded for his superb performance with more run support. Castro and Taylor opened the top of the sixth with a single and a walk against Mushinski, and the offense was at it again. Solano crushed a double to left to bring home both runners and make it 7-0 Minnesota.

Varland completes seven, a career-high
Heck, even when Varland wasn’t so sharp, he got some more run support. After recording the first two outs in the bottom of the sixth on only nine pitches, the Minnesota native lost the next two batters to a single and a walk, his first of the night. He got the force out in the following at-bat and kept the zero on the scoreboard, but not before throwing 20 pitches in the inning, his longest one of the night.

The offense added on against reliever Seth Martinez in the top of the seventh. Castro drew a two-out walk, stole second, then was pushed across by a Taylor double to center, making it 8-0 Minnesota. Varland came back for the home half of the inning with only 73, and he delivered yet another scoreless frame to complete seven shutout innings. Before tonight’s game, Varland’s longest start of his young career had been the 6 1/3 he tossed against the Cubs earlier this month.

Jorge López continues to struggle badly
Having allowed earned runs in three of his previous four games, Jorge López came into the game in the eighth hoping to get back on track after an awful month of May. Unfortunately, he would end up having what was maybe his worst outing as a Twin. Jake Meyers hit a leadoff home run on the very first pitch of the inning, which was followed by another home run next, by Yainer Díaz, scoring Houston’s second run.

He then lost Mauricio Dubón on a ten-pitch walk and hit Jeremy Peña on the fingers next, giving Houston the chance to cut the lead down to only three on a swing of the bat. Rocco Baldelli decided to bring Brock Stewart in before López could record an out. Stewart did a phenomenal job by striking out the side on 13 pitches to shut down the Astros’ rally. López, who didn’t allow a single run during his March and April outings, ends the month of May with a 9.00 ERA.

José De León pitched around a hit batter in the bottom of the ninth, and with that, the Twins secured only their second road series win on the season, the first one since the Royals series that opened the season for the Twins.

Postgame interview

What’s Next?
The Twins head back home, where they’ll start a four-game series against the Cleveland Guardians at Target Field. The series opener is scheduled for 6:40 pm CDT on Thursday (6/1), with Pablo López (3-3, 4.11 ERA) set to make the start for Minnesota and Tanner Bibee (1-1, 2.88 ERA) toeing the rubber for Cleveland.

 Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	TOT
Sands	0	16	0	48	0	64
Stewart	13	0	18	0	13	44
J. López	22	0	6	0	16	44
De León	0	27	0	0	16	43
Durán	12	0	29	0	0	41
Jax	0	12	0	8	0	20
Morán	9	0	0	1	0	10
Pagán	0	7	0	0	0	7

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[Mortimerkenny21]

What a showcase by Louie V. Hope it continues to build his pride and confidence. You belong here Louie! Nice win! And props for the offense doing some clutch hitting keep it up.

[twins_89]

I really hope that no one in the Twins organization is considering putting Maeda back in the rotation.

[LiamC]

12 minutes ago, twins_89 said:

I really hope that no one in the Twins organization is considering putting Maeda back in the rotation.

I really love Maeda... but with the rotation the Twins' strongest aspect and the bullpen struggling so, it just seems like it doesn't make sense to put him as a starter. If Varland had pitched horribly instead of fantastically today, then I could see it.

All that said, if Maeda could come back up and swing into action as a set-up man? Boy would that solve some problems! 

[IndianaTwin]

I was busy tonight, so unable to follow along. Apparently the sky didn’t fall. I can’t wait to skim through the Game Thread for the several pages of grumbling about the getaway day lineup. 

[IndianaTwin]

20 minutes ago, twins_89 said:

I really hope that no one in the Twins organization is considering putting Maeda back in the rotation.

Starting on Tuesday, they have a stretch of 28 games in 30 days, including a stretch with 16 straight. If everyone remains healthy, I suspect we’ll see a couple trips through a six-man rotation when Maeda is healthy enough to join it. With the All-Star Break soon after, I could see that as a time to skip Ober and Varland to save a few innings. 

[Jocko87]

2 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

Starting on Tuesday, they have a stretch of 28 games in 30 days, including a stretch with 16 straight. If everyone remains healthy, I suspect we’ll see a couple trips through a six-man rotation when Maeda is healthy enough to join it. With the All-Star Break soon after, I could see that as a time to skip Ober and Varland to save a few innings. 

Yup, I think Maeda will get some starts and pair nicely with the long man that never sees action. 

[Jocko87]

I have really enjoyed watching young Louis pitch well but I’m far more impressed against who and where he is doing it. Two trips to Yankee stadium and now the healthy defending champs in their place and doing more than holding his own is darn impressive. 

[Danchat]

Heck of a game by an offense that didn't look like it would produce much! Weird how we're doing so well against the Astros and the Yankees.

Varland is a legit MLB starter and I wouldn't move him out of the rotation for Maeda. Kenta hasn't been able to stay healthy and we could use him in the bullpen. I would hope he understands that, as I know he's not a fan of moving out of the rotation.

[Squirrel]

15 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

I was busy tonight, so unable to follow along. Apparently the sky didn’t fall. I can’t wait to skim through the Game Thread for the several pages of grumbling about the getaway day lineup. 

It was a good thread … not to give it all away

[SwainZag]

16 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

Starting on Tuesday, they have a stretch of 28 games in 30 days, including a stretch with 16 straight. If everyone remains healthy, I suspect we’ll see a couple trips through a six-man rotation when Maeda is healthy enough to join it. With the All-Star Break soon after, I could see that as a time to skip Ober and Varland to save a few innings. 

I think you are probably pretty spot on.  If he comes back and struggles, THEN I can see him moving to the pen.  I don't think giving any one of our starters an extra day rest at this point in the season is a bad idea either.

[UK Twin]

Twins win the season series against Houston, they win the season series against the Yankees. What next? Nice to see the Twins score 8 without hitting a home run as well. Jeffers is really hitting the cover off the ball right now - I would be having him catch more than Vasquez at the moment. Stewart did a great job coming in, mainly to prevent Duran from getting loose and potentially entering the game. Got a big 4 game series against Cleveland which we need him for. 

[wabene]

Here we are June 1st. Still in first place. Still over 500. Wrong again my friend. Get your crow. 

[bighat]

I winced when I opened MLB.com this morning, but when I was finally brave enough to open my eyes I couldn't believe it. 

A truer "getaway day" lineup doesn't exist, yet they went out there and clobbered the 'Stros and took the series. Castro, Solano, Kirilloff and Varland fill up the stat sheet? 

Would be happy if they could build on this. 

5 of the first 6 Twins outs came via strikeout, which is just something that can't continue to happen. 

[FlyingFinn]

Very nice game by Solano. Julien will be a great OBP guy and hitter but I'm just not seeing him ever being better than a bad fielder. Sure wish we had a DH spot open for him.

[Karbo]

Varland was great, and should have been allowed to at least start the 8th IMO.

[William K Johnson]

Enough of the Julien experiment at this time.  Send him back across the river, put Farmer at second until Polanco returns.  Also, how much longer until Wallner supplants either Kepler or Gallo?  Did anyone miss Correa and/or Buxton in the lineup last night?   Finally, is Willi Castro the Twins MVP through the first third of the season?

[wsnydes]

So, offense is fun!

Nice outing by Varland.  Pretty encouraging to see him work through the couple of tough spots he found himself in.

[wabene]

20 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Varland was great, and should have been allowed to at least start the 8th IMO.

You are entitled to that opinion and it is shared by many. 

My questions:

What is the fascination of pushing pitchers to their absolute limit at every opportunity? 

Does this make any sense to do this in an era with such frequent pitcher injuries? 

In a game like this with a lead like that, I would argue that is the exact time to ease up on your valuable young starter. 

[mikelink45]

I loved this game - maybe the best of the season.  Varland has proven he belongs in the major league rotation.   I do agree I would have let him go to the 8th and if a shut out the 9th.  

To have offense and pitching both clicking is great.

Too bad Lopez had to implode.  I have never seen a worse appearance.  But it is not a single event.  Look at his last  games.  He threatens to become this years Pagan.  After a poor second half last year what is our confidence level.  The BP needs help. 

Last 5 Games

 

Date	Tm		Opp	Result	App,Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	WP	IBB	PO	BK	BF	Pit	Str	StL	StS	GB	FB	LD	PU	Unk	GmSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLi	RE24
2023-05-31	MIN	@	HOU	W 8-2	8-8	1	0.0	2	2	2	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	4	16	9	0	1	0	2	0	0	0		0	0	-0.029	0.14	-0.02%	0.14	-2.982
2023-05-29	MIN	@	HOU	W 7-5 (10)	8-8	1	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	6	4	1	1	2	0	0	0	0		0	0	0.029	0.52	0.02%	0.52	0.478
2023-05-27	MIN		TOR	W 9-7	9-9	3	0.0	3	3	3	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	4	22	14	2	1	0	0	3	0	0		0	0	-0.136	0.66	-0.08%	0.61	-2.974
2023-05-23	MIN		SFG	L 3-4	7-7, BL	1	1.0	2	2	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	18	11	2	1	1	2	1	1	0		0	0	-0.359	1.56	-0.22%	1.61	-1.537
2023-05-21	MIN	@	LAA	L 2-4	7-7	0	0.1	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	12	6	1	1	1	1	1	0	0		1	1	-0.276	1.58	-0.19%	1.84	-2.066

[Peter]

Kepler at bat in 3rd was turning point of game. That was strikeout. Huge series win!! Much needed!!! Let’s hope this can spark twins rest of season

[wsnydes]

21 minutes ago, wabene said:

You are entitled to that opinion and it is shared by many. 

My questions:

What is the fascination of pushing pitchers to their absolute limit at every opportunity? 

Does this make any sense to do this in an era with such frequent pitcher injuries? 

In a game like this with a lead like that, I would argue that is the exact time to ease up on your valuable young starter. 

And I would add that a game like that is a perfect time to get a guy like Lopez work in a low leverage situation to work out some kinks.  It obviously went poorly, but that's why you do it.  You have some room for error.

Plus, there's still a lot of season left and the young starters are already being relied on heavily.  And as @IndianaTwin noted, they're coming up on a stretch of 28 games in 30 days.  Fresh bullpen arms are easier to cycle through than the rotation guys.

I wouldn't have been upset if Varland came out for the 8th, but I don't think it was necessary and there were better uses for that situation in my opinion.

[TwinsDr2021]

21 minutes ago, wabene said:

What is the fascination of pushing pitchers to their absolute limit at every opportunity?

He was averaging 12 pitchers per inning, if he goes one more he is still under 100 pitches. Is that the absolute limit? if so that is sad, the other starter threw 102.

My observation of the game was, the offense finally came though when needed. Maybe give Buxton and Correa another day off. As for pitching two complete opposite approaches one pitcher ran his pitch count up, lasted 4.2 innings recorded 13 outs of which 8 were K's. The other pitcher was way more efficient lasted 7 innings but only had 5 K's. Give me the more efficient pitcher every time, Maybe Gray could learn a thing or two about not trying to strike out every batter.

[TwinsDr2021]

2 minutes ago, wsnydes said:

And I would add that a game like that is a perfect time to get a guy like Lopez work in a low leverage situation to work out some kinks.  It obviously went poorly, but that's why you do it.  You have some room for error.

Plus, there's still a lot of season left and the young starters are already being relied on heavily.  And as @IndianaTwin noted, they're coming up on a stretch of 28 games in 30 days.  Fresh bullpen arms are easier to cycle through than the rotation guys.

I wouldn't have been upset if Varland came out for the 8th, but I don't think it was necessary and there were better uses for that situation in my opinion.

I would argue this was the perfect game for Pagen to come in for two innings and close the game out and not waste Lopez and Stewart in a 8 - 0 game, but what do I know.

[wsnydes]

6 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

I would argue this was the perfect game for Pagen to come in for two innings and close the game out and not waste Lopez and Stewart in a 8 - 0 game, but what do I know.

I imagine that the idea was that Lopez wouldn't get shelled and would be able finish out the game.  It's not like Pagan was guaranteed to get through the rest of the game either.  But yes, that would have been another option.  Not the one I would choose, but not one I'd have been upset with either.

At least it was Stewart that was burned up and not one of the better relievers.  Stewart can be sent down for a fresh arm.

[Riverbrian]

No Correa, No Buxton, No Lewis.

8 Runs and a Victory

Baseball is played terribly on paper. 

[wabene]

20 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

He was averaging 12 pitchers per inning, if he goes one more he is still under 100 pitches. Is that the absolute limit? if so that is sad, the other starter threw 102.

My observation of the game was, the offense finally came though when needed. Maybe give Buxton and Correa another day off. As for pitching two complete opposite approaches one pitcher ran his pitch count up, lasted 4.2 innings recorded 13 outs of which 8 were K's. The other pitcher was way more efficient lasted 7 innings but only had 5 K's. Give me the more efficient pitcher every time, Maybe Gray could learn a thing or two about not trying to strike out every batter.

If anything was "sad" wouldn't it be that the other starter only got 4.2 innings out of his 102 pitches?

We've got a young, strong, determined starter on our hands who is likely going to blow by his most innings pitched in a season this year. This management staff has managed to keep Duran healthy after only pitching 16 innings 2 years ago. They have Joe Ryan, a rising star with a smooth delivery and a clean injury history. If he's got his flow going they've run him up to I think about 108 pitches. When late in a start he had a draining what was it 15-20 pitch at bat and is losing velocity, they pull him at 89. This strategy seems to be working.

Pushing a starter to a complete game, shut out or no hitter etc achieves essentially bragging rights but not much else. I prefer a winning, healthy starter for a full season. Look at what happened with Johan, do you think he would trade that one game for a longer, healthy career? 

[MABB1959]

I think Rocco should ride this line-up for a few more games.  I know it is at home and fans want to see Buxton and Correa.  Kepler absolutely should be pulled.  This may give fans a chance to get to know the other players

What other game do they sit the hottest players?  I would go at least one more game to see what happens. This would give last night's players a "reward" for their hard work and incent others to play to their best or back to the bench.

[jmlease1]

7 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

Starting on Tuesday, they have a stretch of 28 games in 30 days, including a stretch with 16 straight. If everyone remains healthy, I suspect we’ll see a couple trips through a six-man rotation when Maeda is healthy enough to join it. With the All-Star Break soon after, I could see that as a time to skip Ober and Varland to save a few innings. 

I think you've got this backwards. 28 games in 30 days isn't where you need an additional starter unless we end up with a double-header. It's the bullpen where we could get overstretched, especially if we get a couple of short starts. And adding a starter to the roster means one less reliever (remember, we're capped at 13 pitchers now). Maeda makes much more sense in relief right now, especially if as a former starter he could consistently take 2 innings every three days.

Really good start from Varland. I think I would have let him try the 8th; as much as giving Lopez a shot in low leverage makes sense, it was also an opportunity to see how Varland does 3rd time through the order and seeing how his stamina holds up pushing 100 pitches. But I don't have a big objection to giving him 7 shut-out and having him call it a night. (There's almost no chance of him throwing a complete game in this situation, so taking it off the table after 7 is fine)

Really good hitting last night overall too. Seems like every time I get down on Solano and start suggesting it's time to move on from him he has a good game. Castro is having an excellent stretch and is proving to be better that I thought for sure. He played nice defense at 3B too.

I love winning a series against Houston.

[MABB1959]

Just now, wabene said:

Pushing a starter to a complete game, shut out or no hitter etc achieves essentially bragging rights but not much else. I prefer a winning, healthy starter for a full season. Look at what happened with Johan. 

Is their a trend of players pitching at least 7 innings or 100+ pitches hitting the injury list the next day?