Make It Official! Twins 13, Royals 3: Here Comes the Zoom

[Hans Birkeland]

With Byron Buxton hurt, and Zebby Matthews arriving, Twins fans had a right to be both hopeful and terrified going into Tuesday's tilt with Kansas City. Matthews was as-advertised, pounding the strike zone and holding the Royals to two runs in five innings, while the lineup obliterated All-Star spin doctor Seth Lugo en route to a convincing win.

Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Zebby Matthews: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K (77 Pitches, 49 Strikes, 63.6%)
Home Runs: Christian Vazquez (7), Max Kepler (8), Kyle Farmer (1)
Top 3 WPA: Jose Miranda (.185), Matt Wallner (.116), Matthews (.099)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

Excitement was in the air on Tuesday, as Twins fans awaited the debut of Daniel Zebulon "Zebby" Matthews. His arrival was hastened as a result of Joe Ryan's (likely) season-ending teres major strain, but Matthews has a lot of helium as a prospect. He started the year in single A but his overwhelming dominance (114/7 strikeout/walk ratio) prompted the Twins to turn to him, potentially over the more experienced Louie Varland, to fill the fifth spot in their rotation.

Matthews was sharp around the zone, showcasing his elite strike-throwing ability. After a long fly out to leadoff hitter Michael Massey in the first, Matthews struck out MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr.  on three swinging strikes, going cutter-cutter-slider, a truly impressive display.

While Matthews continued to paint the edges of the strike zone, he quickly got a crash course in how major league hitters can still hurt you if they know, or guess, what's coming. MJ Melendez, one of the more mediocre hitters in baseball (though with some power) guessed that Matthews was going to bust him inside and pulled his hands in, crushing a Matthews cutter 405 feet for the Royals' first run in the second.

Opposing Matthews was the sort of pitcher he may become someday, Seth Lugo. Lugo throws about a hundred different pitches and commands them all well. He doesn't issue any walks and can throw his fastball as hard as 96-97 MPH. Kept in captivity by some dysfunctional Mets teams as a security blanket reliever for several years, he was finally allowed to start in 2023 with the Padres and pitched well, prompting the Royals to sign him to a multi-year deal this past off-season. He's been even better in 2024, making his first all-star team, and holding the Twins to a single run in 12 innings, but his league leading 155 2/3 innings have perhaps started to wear on him, as he hasn't been as effective lately, while skipping between start throwing sessions.

It didn't take long for the Twins to take advantage. Willi Castro led off the first with a ringing double off the wall in right-center. Royce Lewis then worked a long at-bat that ended with him shortening up and lining a single up the middle to score Castro. Matt Wallner, now in the third spot in the lineup, hit a ball of the end of his bat and still drove it over the right fielder's head for a double. Jose Miranda, fighting a slump and zero for his last eleven, grounded to the third baseman Maikel Franco, who hesitated on whether he should throw home with Lewis going from third on contact. Franco decided against that, and threw wildly to first, with Miranda ending up at second and both Lewis and Wallner scoring to make the score 3-0.

Facing Melendez again in the fourth inning, Matthews nibbled himself into a 3-1 count. He challenged the outfielder with a couple fastballs at 95 MPH down the middle that were fouled back. Matthews then finished off the at-bat with a backdoor slider. The at-bat was a good example of two affirmations for the rookie: A) He can beat hitters in the zone when he needs to and B) He needs to be conscious of not throwing too many strikes.

Even better for the rookie, the Twins kept adding on against Lugo. Miranda doubled home Wallner in the third, and the red-hot Christian Vazquez homered to dead center field in the fourth (Should he move up in the order?).

Matthews' best sequence came in the fifth, though not without some consternation. He struck out Adam Frazier on a cutter darting in on his hands, and then struck out Garcia on a 95 MPH fastball dotted at the bottom of the zone. Unfortunately, Kyle Isbel bounced a ball just out of the reach of a diving Austin Martin, and Massey lined a ball just short of Max Kepler's glove, with the ball rolling away and allowing Isbel to score.

That brought up Witt Jr. for the third time, and after getting ahead with a painted first pitch slider, Matthews got Witt reaching for a fastball outside and induced a weak fly out to Kepler, a good sign in gauging the rookie's intestinal fortitude.

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Matthews was done after five innings, and the lineup set out to make sure he earned a win in his debut. In the bottom of  the fifth, Miranda and Wallner singled, and Carlos Santana walked to load the bases. Kepler then singled, which ended the night for Lugo. Facing Twins punching bag Chris Stratton, Manuel Margot produced an infield single of Garcia's glove and Vazquez delivered a sacrifice fly to make the score 8-2.

I was unsure about the health/mental state of Kepler, who looked visibly frustrated striking out his first two times up and hasn't hit for much power lately. He must be fine though, as he delivered the aforementioned dagger to Lugo and then, facing lefty Will Smith in the sixth, golfed a three run home run to officially put the game out of reach. He later singled in the eighth to complete a three hit night.

The Twins added some more runs off of Smith in the seventh, courtesy of a Kyle Farmer home run. Steven Okert, Caleb Thielbar and Josh Winder pitched the last four innings to seal the win.

 

Trends:

	Healthy/Performing	Healthy/Trending Up
Key:	Hurt/Performing	Hurt/Trending Up
	Healthy/Slumping	Healthy/Trending Down
	Hurt/Slumping	Hurt/Trending Down
		Dead/IL/Minors
C	Ryan Jeffers	Christian Vazquez
1B	Carlos Santana	Alex Kirilloff	Jose Miranda
2B	Edouard Julien	Kyle Farmer
3B	Royce Lewis
SS	Carlos Correa	Brooks Lee
LF	Matt Wallner	Trevor Larnach	Austin Martin
CF	Byron Buxton	Manuel Margot
RF	Max Kepler
UTIL	Willi Castro
SP	Pablo Lopez	Bailey Ober	Joe Ryan	Chris Paddack	Louie Varland
RSP	David Festa	Zebby Matthews	Simeon Woods Richardson
CR	Jhoan Duran	Griffin Jax
SR	Brock Stewart	Jorge Alcala	Cole Sands
MR	Trevor Richards	Caleb Thielbar	Steven Okert	Kody Funderburk
LR	Josh Winder

Stray Notes:

Miranda looks back, delivering a classic double to left-center and spraying the ball around with authority. He finished a home run shy of the cycle.

Steven Okert returned from bereavement, and had the misfortune of facing Salvador Perez, who launched a home run to dead center in the sixth. Okert had given up a .931 to righties entering play. He may need to outpitch Trevor Richards down the stretch to keep his roster spot.

Kyle Farmer hit his first home run of the year, an upper decker in the seventh to further ruin the day of Will Smith.

Since last Friday's doubleheader, Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax have combined for one appearance. That could be crucial as the Twins are in the midst of playing 14 games in 13 days.

Buxton's MRI showed no significant damage and he remains day-to-day. His hip has popped up as an issue several times since 2021.

What’s Next: Louie Varland (0-4, 6.46) looks to build off an encouraging start in the second game of the Cleveland series (outside of that one curveball) opposing lefty Cole Ragans (9-7, 3.27 ERA). Ragans has electric stuff but has looked human against the Twins thus far, losing both games he started and allowing five runs in eleven innings.

Postgame Interviews:

 

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Thielbar	20	0	32	0	14	66
Winder	0	29	0	0	26	55
Richards	9	0	0	25	0	34
Alcalá	16	0	15	0	0	31
Sands	18	0	9	0	0	27
Jax	12	0	0	12	0	24
Okert	0	0	0	0	15	15
Durán	14	0	0	0	0	14

 

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[mark allen]

awesome win for Zebby didn't fold to the pressure.  I think did enough to stay up.

[mikelink45]

I am sold on Zebby. Keep them in the rotation and let him mature and succeed.  

[jimbo92107]

With a name like Zebby, ain't no need for a nickname. Don't change a thing, Zebby! I hereby add your name to my spelling dictionary!

[Blyleven2011]

From start to finish it was a good game ,,, 

The hitters hit to insure a win for the rookie  making his debut  ...

I don't think I have been this excited about a rookie making his debut since Eddie Bane did for the twins back in 1973  ...

[Linus]

Great debut for Mathews. He looked the part and handled himself well. Winder with another excellent 2 inning stint. If he can continue to pitch close to this level that will be a huge unexpected boost for the pen. 

[IaBeanCounter]

Is Varland going to start tomorrow?  Ober could pitch, but KC has his number.  Zebbe was great tonight, I was worried about the first inning, as he had trouble in StP, 8 of 12 runs allowed, but he had no problems.

[Eris]

Matthews pitched well and several great plays behind him. 
 

About the trends table. Interesting concept. I think it could be enhanced using more natural choices for colors. Example healthy performing = bright green, healthy trending up = dull green.  With 8 choices it might be a challenge, a goal would be that readers could understand the table without looking for the key. 

[wabene]

[cmoss84]

Bullpen in good shape.

[Fatbat]

I can’t imagine Matthews getting sent down until he has a couple bad games or Ryan/Paddack come back.  It would also have to be a Varland resurgence as a starter but I bet he will be going to the bullpen in a week or two. Paddack may be joining him in the pen. 

[BH67]

My goodness, the 2025 Twins starting rotation is going to be great, provided that nobody needs Tommy John surgery.

As for the current vintage, the Twins offense has thrashed two of the AL's best starters on consecutive nights. A resurgence of juggernaut offense will be well timed against Ragans tomorrow followed by four against the struggling Rangers. And the Twins have allowed only 18 runs in six games against two division rivals with powerful offenses.

All that said, I'd like a TSA agent to run a wand over Emmanuel Clase's pitching arm.

[Shaitan]

Does Martin look any better at 2B now that he's playing there with some regularity?

[jkcarew]

Why Varland tomorrow? Ober’s normal (4 days off) turn. Why save him for a team you’re 12.5 games up on instead of pitching him against the team you’re 2.5 games up on? Load management I suppose.

What the ____ is going on with Vazquez!?

Can Festa and Matthews find consistency right out of the gate?

So many questions! I’ll have to keep watching.

[USAFChief]

Home Runs: Christian Vazquez (7), Max Kepler (8), Kyle Farmer (1)

 

As expected.

[USAFChief]

Also, congrats Mr Mathews. Well done, young man.

[Nashvilletwin]

58 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

From start to finish it was a good game ,,, 

The hitters hit to insure a win for the rookie  making his debut  ...

I don't think I have been this excited about a rookie making his debut since Eddie Bane did for the twins back in 1973  ...

My dad took me to that game.  Great memory at the old Met.  Here’s hoping Mathews has a better career.

BTW, isn’t it great to see a pitcher not giving away free passes.

[IaBeanCounter]

16 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

Why Varland tomorrow? Ober’s normal (4 days off) turn. Why save him for a team you’re 12.5 games up on instead of pitching him against the team you’re 2.5 games up on? Load management I suppose

KC has two wins against the Twins, both Ober starts.  14 ER in 6.1 innings.

[TheLeviathan]

We would've won this game if Rocco doesn't tear McCarthy's menicus subbing him in the early innings against a left handed secondary.

[jkcarew]

1 minute ago, IaBeanCounter said:

KC has two wins against the Twins, both Ober starts.  14 ER in 6.1 innings.

Mean’s nothing to me…I doubt it does to Rocco either. Was he throwing it then like he has been lately? Your best pitchers are always going to be the best pitchers over the longer term…and KC isn’t so great offensively that he can’t figure them out. I’m guessing a pre-determined load management move given the on-going period of heavy scheduling.

[darwin22]

1 hour ago, Blyleven2011 said:

From start to finish it was a good game ,,, 

The hitters hit to insure a win for the rookie  making his debut  ...

I don't think I have been this excited about a rookie making his debut since Eddie Bane did for the twins back in 1973  ...

Wow...not sure how many fans remember Eddie Bane, but a few nuggets from his MLB debut:

1.  After pitching to an outstanding 40-4 record at Arizona St and leading his team to the championship game in the CWS against USC, the Twins signed him to a whopping 55K bonus.

2.  His 1st start came on July 4th at Metropolitan Stadium against KC. Hoping to (literally) cash in on Bane's debut like the Rangers did with David Clyde, who followed the same route out of college, Calvin Griffith promoted Bane to start without any minor league experience.

3.  The game was a sellout---45,890 at the Old Met, which prompted a 15-minute delay in getting the game started.

4.   Bane's 1st MLB strikeout came against Lou Piniella.

5.   Bane pitched an excellent game allowing only 1 run over 7 IP.  That proved to be his best game as he finished the season 0-5 with a 4.92 ERA

[Dman]

Matthews looked pretty much like he always looks.  Super poised on the mound.  Gives up the Home Run no big deal gets the next out and next one.  His pitches looked sharp for the most part and as noted he walked no one. He has pitched the same way at every level so far.

I will say this umpire had a pretty large outside edge and Zebby benefited a few times on called third strikes out there. Also a fair number of balls hit to the warning track and yet he only gave up five hits, no walks and K'd five over 5 innings for a WHIP of 1.00 and ERA of 3.60.

A great debut for him and to be honest right now he looks like he belongs in the big leagues.  Still a lot to learn to be sure, but with his combination of mental toughness, trust in his pitches and ability to throw strikes I'm not sure what more you could want from a rookie that started at High A this year. For that matter the way he pitches I'm not sure what more you would want from a veteran pitcher. Throw strikes, get outs he seems to have that ability from the start.

[darwin22]

Just wondering the following after such an excellent MLB debut by Zebby tonight:

When was the last time a pitcher won his MLB debut after progressing through 3 minor league levels in the same season?

I was fortunate to see Matthews pitch the second week of July in Springfield for the Wind Surge against Springfield.  A high pitch count forced him out after only 3 innings, which was quite disappointing at the time.  Boy, he sure didn't disappoint at all tonight!

Don't want to get too hyped over just 1 game, but Matthews showed tonight against a very good hitting team what he's done the vast majority of his time in the minors:  Command of the strike zone, aggressiveness in attacking the strike zone and an excellent pitch mix over his 5 IP.

Welcome to "The Show" young man and hoping for a long and prosperous career in our starting rotation.

[USAFChief]

30 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

My dad took me to that game.  Great memory at the old Met.  Here’s hoping Mathews has a better career.

BTW, isn’t it great to see a pitcher not giving away free passes.

I was at Eddie Bane's MLB debut as well. July 4th. Against KC, ironically. 

[Nashvilletwin]

49 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

I was at Eddie Bane's MLB debut as well. July 4th. Against KC, ironically. 

That’s right - I remember seeing you there.  Hahahaha, just kidding, of course.  

[gregens]

2 hours ago, Fatbat said:

I can’t imagine Matthews getting sent down until he has a couple bad games or Ryan/Paddack come back.  It would also have to be a Varland resurgence as a starter but I bet he will be going to the bullpen in a week or two. Paddack may be joining him in the pen. 

I can't imagine that Ryan will pitch again any time in 2024... unfortunately.

[USAFChief]

22 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

That’s right - I remember seeing you there.  Hahahaha, just kidding, of course.  

I took my grandson. 

 

 

[mrcharlie]

The most complete game the Twins have played in some time.  Just one thought to add.

Will Vasquez function as Matthews personal catcher going forward?  

[bighat]

After looking at these results, it's pretty obvious that we need to go with Zebby, Pablo and Ober - in that order - against the Yankees in the Wildcard series. Right?

Seriously though, great debut! Need to see Varland step up today.

A real shame this team never seems to have all of it's parts healthy at the same time. As soon as someone emerges, a star goes down. As soon as that star comes back, another starter goes on the IL. I realize it's league-wide: Trout, Acuna, and the list of pitchers is too long to list. 

[FlyingFinn]

4 hours ago, mrcharlie said:

Will Vasquez function as Matthews personal catcher going forward? 

No. The Twins don't do that. The rotating of catchers each game has kept both of them healthy for an incredible two seasons now.