Make It Official! Twins 5, Rockies 0: Sheriff Tames Mountain Men Lost on Prairie's Edge

[Theodore Tollefson]

The Twins returned home Monday night, for a 10-game homestand that follows a dismal 3-6 road trip. Chris Paddack dueled against the Rockies' Dakota Hudson. Could the Twins put the road trip behind them and make it a two-game winning streak?

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Chris Paddack  6.1 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K (93 pitches, 61 strikes (65.6% strikes))
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (4)
Top 3 WPA: Paddack .372, Carlos Correa .100, Manuel Margot .076, 

Win Probability Chart

Paddack Regains Composure and Velocity 
Paddack has had a rough go around on the mound over the last month as he hasn’t recorded a win on the mound since May 8. Every start he’s made since May 3rd though, Paddcak has at least given up one or more earned runs, with his second-highest run total coming in his previous start against the Yankees on June 5. 

The Twins need the version of Paddack that would have hitters chasing more pitches rather than making contact with them. And they saw a closer version of Paddack like that on Monday night. 

While he allowed six hits through six and a third inning of work, Paddack had helped to advertise the Rockies' biggest threat in the top of the first, when he allowed back-to-back singles to start the game. Paddack got a much-needed double play turned by Royce Lewis and Willi Castro to get the first two outs of the game. Paddack would then strike out Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon to get the Twins out of the jam.

Royce Lewis' first defensive chance of the season at Target Field is a diving stop to start a double play from his knees, because of course.

Rockies catcher Elias Díaz was hobbled on his way down the line and came off the field with a trainer. pic.twitter.com/J7iMX8AuBC

— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) June 10, 2024

Paddack allowed only four hits through his final four and a third innings of work. His fastball velocity went up a significant amount as well compared to the average 91-92 mph it had been over the last month. He topped out at 97.1 MPH and had a fastball velocity average of 95.1 MPH once all was said and done for Paddack on Monday.

Impatient at the plate early on
Dakota Hudson was dealing against the Twins as the lineup was fairly aggressive in their approach against him in the game's early going. Hudson retired the first seven Twins with no problem, but Manuel Margot ended his perfect game bid with a one-out double in the bottom of the third. Margot advanced to third base on that double due to a fielding by right fielder Hunter Goodman.

Christian Vazquez did the bare minimum hitting a sacrifice fly to get Margot home and the Twins on the board for a 1-0 lead. 

Through 3 ⅔ innings, Hudson had thrown only 35 pitches, 25 for strikes, to retire the Twins first 11 hitters. Fortunately, the Twins had a runner on second for Carlos Correa, who finally worked a seven-pitch at-bat against Hudson to leg out an RBI double that scored Lewis and put the Twins up 2-0. 

The one thing the Twins didn’t take advantage of with Hudson was the walk game. Hudson entered the game leading the National League with 33. They didn’t get their first until the bottom of the fifth as Margot drew the Twins' first walk in the game. They’d only get one more as Hudson’s final batter Alex Kirilloff drew the Twins' second walk on four quick pitches. 

---

Twins Daily's winning "Make It Official!" game recaps are sponsored by Official Fried Chicken, which you can find in center field of Target Field. With a name like "Official," we know we have to be the best in the game every day, and from your first bite, you'll know that's a promise we make good on.

---

Last year, Hudson only had 34 walks in 81.1 innings. He has already surpassed this total in 13 fewer innings in 2024 and left the game still leading the National League in walks allowed with 35. 

 

Patience Proven
The Twins tacked on a final run in the top of the eighth as Vazquez and Willi Castro led the inning off with a double and single. Trevor Larnach hit a sac fly out to center field to get Vazquez in for the Twins' third run of the game and advanced Castro to second. 

This gave one last chance for Lewis to get his first hit at Target Field this season, and Lewis didn’t disappoint anyone. On an 0-2 curveball, he drilled a 2-run homer to the second deck of left-center field and all but secured the win for the Twins and gave them a 5-0 lead. 

Of course Royce Lewis homered in his first game at Target Field this season.

Lewis now has 25 homers in 83 career games for the #MNTwins, including the playoffs.pic.twitter.com/f8NXG1qyCS

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) June 11, 2024

Continued Bullpen Dominance 
As Paddack left the game, the bullpen picked things up where he left them. Okert came in for a quick two outs throwing only 10 pitches to finish off the seventh. Griffin Jax, who had thrown 43 pitches in two of the Twins' three games in Pittsburgh, had an electric eighth inning as he struck out the side on 15 pitches. 

Diego Castillo had the ninth thanks to Lewis’s homer and pitched his fifth game for the Twins. Castillo had one bad outing in St. Paul earlier this season where he blew a 7-4 Saints lead in the ninth, but that version of Castillo was behind him Monday night, despite a one-out walk. 

Other Notes
The win was the Twins third shutout as a pitching staff this season, the last coming in their 10-0 victory against the Washington Nationals on May 21. It was also the third time in franchise history, that the Twins shut out the Rockies, the last coming on June 25, 2022, behind a rare five-inning start from Chris Archer. 

Paddack's first strikeout of the game against McMahon was also the 400th of his career. In a post-game interview with Kris Atteberry and Dan Gladden on the radio, he marked the moment as a phenomenal benchmark in his career after overcoming his second Tommy John surgery. 

What’s Next? 
The Twins play the second game in the series against Colorado on Tuesday night with another 6:40 start time. The Twins will recall Louie Varland for his second stint in the rotation (if only for a short stay), while the Rockies will send a familiar foe Cal Quantrill to the mound.  

Postgame Interview 
Coming soon.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

View full article

[BH67]

So far in June:

Margot, 1.214 OPS (16 PA)
Vázquez, 1.025 OPS (15 PA)

Yes, those are actual digits to the left of the decimal points.
 

[GNess]

Royce Lewis, despite injury disruptions, is having a hell of a start to his career. 

[D.C Twins]

ROYCE F-ING LEWIS!!!!!!

We beat bad teams, lose to good teams and split with average teams....which makes us...

Average

I suspect we will yo-yo our way through the season 'battling' for the 3rd wildcard spot until the end of the season.

I honestly don't know if that makes me excited or depressed....wait a minute....I'm excited because....

ROYCE F-ING LEWIS!!!!!

(and maybe... just maybe... Zebby f-ing um.... er... Zebby?!)

[Melissa]

I was at Target Field for this fun game on a perfect summer’s evening. The way the Twins batters went down so quickly in the opening innings helped keep the game short (2:09), with much of the home team action in the bottom (not top) of the eighth. When Larnach came up to bat with two on, I was hoping for a walk to load the bases for the inevitable Royce Lewis grand slam in his first appearance at home in 2024. Larnach’s sac fly left only one teammate on base for Royce’s monster home run, but the crowd nonetheless went electric watching it soar into the upper deck. Quite a show.

[Doctor Wu]

8 hours ago, GNess said:

Royce Lewis, despite injury disruptions, is having a hell of a start to his career. 

Imagine having a healthy Royce Lewis for a complete season?! Let's hope that becomes the new normal. Twins fans will salivate at that actually happening, while opposing teams will quake in their shoes. This guy is for real!

[Peter]

Huge win!!! Important homestand to get way over .500 and claw way back into central division. Who cares if it’s against teams under .500 just win!!!

[MABB1959]

Hard to blame any losses on the pitchers.  They rarely have a lead to work with and giving up 1-2 runs will most likely be a loss.  It seems that Paddock is a bit better than Lopez based on stats but all of the pitchers are doing fine IMO.  

[MMMordabito]

33 minutes ago, Peter said:

Huge win!!! Important homestand to get way over .500 and claw way back into central division. Who cares if it’s against teams under .500 just win!!!

[USAFChief]

Twins struck out only twice last night. Fewest since June, 2022 according to the radio post game show. 

Paddack gave up quite a bit of hard contact, but 6 1/3 shutout IP works.

 

 

[Karbo]

That's the Paddack everyone was hoping for when they traded for him. Now we'll see if this is the new norm or just a good game out of many.

[Doctor Wu]

3 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Twins struck out only twice last night. Fewest since June, 2022 according to the radio post game show. 

Paddack gave up quite a bit of hard contact, but 6 1/3 shutout IP works.

 

 

Paddack has had the tendency to give up a bunch of hits this year, but he's striking out a few batters, and walking very few (14 walks in 71 IP). so it's give and take, up and down. I still have hopes he will settle into a groove and give us more games like this one. 

[Parfigliano]

38 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

Paddack has had the tendency to give up a bunch of hits this year, but he's striking out a few batters, and walking very few (14 walks in 71 IP). so it's give and take, up and down. I still have hopes he will settle into a groove and give us more games like this one. 

That would be nice

[Doctor Gast]

9 hours ago, Melissa said:

I was at Target Field for this fun game on a perfect summer’s evening. The way the Twins batters went down so quickly in the opening innings helped keep the game short (2:09), with much of the home team action in the bottom (not top) of the eighth. When Larnach came up to bat with two on, I was hoping for a walk to load the bases for the inevitable Royce Lewis grand slam in his first appearance at home in 2024. Larnach’s sac fly left only one teammate on base for Royce’s monster home run, but the crowd nonetheless went electric watching it soar into the upper deck. Quite a show.

Now wouldn't that be something? Royce hitting a grand slam! 

[terrydactyls]

Vasquez hitting a sacrifice fly is not the bare minimum.  For a team like the Twins, that are awful in RISP situations, a sacrifice fly is much more than the bare minimum.  He's having an awful year at the plate so far, but give him credit when he does something good.

[Doctor Gast]

I felt sorry for the Rockies losing basically their only bright spot, Elias Diaz. Paddack had a good game & it was good to see the offense come alive, looks like we have overcome the aftermath of the NYY series. Lewis is back! 

"Christian Vazquez did the bare minimum hitting a sacrifice fly to get Margot home and the Twins on the board for a 1-0 lead." 

Bare minimum, come on! Vazquez got the job done by not striking out & putting us on the boards, period! I don't like the response Vazquez is getting. We need Vazquez! We don't have this great defensive catcher waiting in the wings to take Jeffers's spot . We have plenty of talent at 1B, OF & even utility that we can easily drop unproductive veterans but at the demanding & key position of backup catcher, we have nobody! This last week or so Vazquez has been hitting  4-10, 1 HR, 2 2B, 2 BB, 0 SO, .400 BA .500 OBP, you can figure out the slugging & OPS besides being a top-notch defensive catcher.  We are stuck with Vazquez+ we owe Vazquez a salary & he's vital to the success of this club. We need to be cheering for Vazquez, not lambast or minimize what he does.

[Doctor Gast]

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

That's the Paddack everyone was hoping for when they traded for him. Now we'll see if this is the new norm or just a good game out of many.

Paddack is still coming off his 2nd TJ, we can't be surprised when he comes up with a down performance after an extended outing.

[LambchoP]

I see Varland is picking up a spot start Tuesday. Did they put someone on the IL or just send down a reliever?

[David Maro]

The game is called baseball,the object is to score more runs than the opponent.A sac fly helps to do that.The game is going in the wrong direction with the homerun becoming the end all be all.Last night the offense didn't come alive,they made a weak starter look like a Cy Young talent.He averaged less than 10 pitches per inning through 5 innings.Hopefully Varland has learned something in St Paul and gives the team a chance to win tonight.

[Whitey333]

Blah blah game against a very  blah blah team.  Don't get me wrong I'm glad they won.  It's great they beat a team they should beat.  Lewis is awesome.  Like a previous poster said if only he can play a full season like that.  I couldn't help but people talking the same thing about Byron Buxton.   Yes only played one full season in 2017.  I sure hope Lewis injuries are over.  He seems to give the team energy.  Go Twins.

[JD-TWINS]

22 hours ago, GNess said:

Royce Lewis, despite injury disruptions, is having a hell of a start to his career. 

Heard Tuesday night that since the start of ‘23 season, only Judge & Ohtani have a higher Slug%. Obviously, a small sample size of AB’s but he gets it done!!

[JD-TWINS]

11 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I felt sorry for the Rockies losing basically their only bright spot, Elias Diaz. Paddack had a good game & it was good to see the offense come alive, looks like we have overcome the aftermath of the NYY series. Lewis is back! 

"Christian Vazquez did the bare minimum hitting a sacrifice fly to get Margot home and the Twins on the board for a 1-0 lead." 

Bare minimum, come on! Vazquez got the job done by not striking out & putting us on the boards, period! I don't like the response Vazquez is getting. We need Vazquez! We don't have this great defensive catcher waiting in the wings to take Jeffers's spot . We have plenty of talent at 1B, OF & even utility that we can easily drop unproductive veterans but at the demanding & key position of backup catcher, we have nobody! This last week or so Vazquez has been hitting  4-10, 1 HR, 2 2B, 2 BB, 0 SO, .400 BA .500 OBP, you can figure out the slugging & OPS besides being a top-notch defensive catcher.  We are stuck with Vazquez+ we owe Vazquez a salary & he's vital to the success of this club. We need to be cheering for Vazquez, not lambast or minimize what he does.

Completely agree - he’s going nowhere & when he performs there’s no reason to get down on him.

A sacrifice fly to score a run is a good play every time!!!

I did see J.T. Realmuto had to get knee surgery, impromptu. Probably out 8 weeks. Did see this as a possible avenue to move Vazquez to a highly competitive team with $$. Just a thought. I routinely point out that if Jeffers got hurt and Twins didn’t have Vazquez they’d be sunk!

[JD-TWINS]

13 hours ago, Karbo said:

That's the Paddack everyone was hoping for when they traded for him. Now we'll see if this is the new norm or just a good game out of many.

Doubt the 6 innings plus of shutout is the norm to come ……he’s got a 2.80 ERA at home and 8.20 on the road ……that’s gotta level off. His velocity sure looks good, that’s for sure. So like the “sticking with” fastball and moving it around - threw it 50% plus of the time.