Twins 5, Red Sox 4: Jeffers and Bader Key Late Rally, Bullpen Hangs On To Win Series

[Hans Birkeland]

Image courtesy of Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Chris Paddack: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K (94 Pitches, 58 Strikes, 61.7%)
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (7)
Top 3 WPA: Harrison Bader (.296), Jhoan Duran (.215), Trevor Larnach (.124)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

It's been another rocky week. Like a struggling reliever, the Twins seemed to get back on track against the low-leverage White Sox and Angels. That even carried over into winning their opening game in Cleveland. But when facing more competent pitching, the Twins once again struggled to score, losing four straight. However, after somehow winning a pressure-packed one-run game yesterday at Fenway Park, they found themselves with a chance to take a road series against a quality opponent while salvaging a 3-4 road trip that, going into it, would have seemed an acceptable result.

Trouble was, the Twins were starting the mercurial Chris Paddack and the Red Sox Garrett Crochet, who's left-handed stuff rivals that of any pitcher in the game.

It started off well, with Byron Buxton launching a leadoff home run over the green monster off a Crochet fastball. Some good swings followed, with Twins hitters clearly trying to capitalize on the first fastball strike in each at-bat, in theory mitigating the effect of Crochet's excellent breaking ball, cutter and changeup.

Paddack's stuff looked good to start, but you got the feeling he needed to be perfect against the patient, powerful and deep Red Sox lineup. The velocity was good, and he didn't give in, walking Rafael Devers who clearly wasn't going to swing through anything Paddack had for him. Two lineouts and a strikeout of Alex Bregman resulted in a scoreless frame, but it took Paddack over 20 pitches and none of it looked easy.

The Twins then started making some dumb mistakes. After Trevor Larnach reached on an error, he tried to steal second and was thrown out fairly easily. Had he stayed at first and let Christian Vazquez, hitting ninth, get himself out, Buxton would have led off the next inning. But by then the lead was gone.

Wilyer Abreau led off the bottom of the second with a pop up to left, but Larnach and Jonah Bride couldn't decide whose ball it was and it landed right between them. You could tell on Paddack's face he knew he was in trouble. Romy Gonzalez then laced a single to right, David Hamilton bunted the runners over, and backup catcher Carlos Narvaez hit a chopper over a drawn in infield to score two runs. To Paddack's credit, he induced a jam-shot blooper from Jarren Duran that Carlos Correa made an amazing over the head catch on, and got Devers to fly out harmlessly to left to end the threat. His pitch count was over 50, but the damage was minimized.

After a quick top of the third, Paddack began the bottom half by walking Bregman. He got the phenomenal rookie Kristian Campbell to line out to center, but Abreau golfed a decent looking changeup into right center for a single, allowing Bregman to reach third. A Romy Gonzalez fly ball would score Bregman to increase the deficit to 3-1. I shudder to think how bad this would have been if Paddack didn't have some of his better stuff.

Correa tried to make something happen in the fourth, and lined a ball off of Crochet's face. Unfortunately, it bounced right to the shortstop. It was also unfortunate that despite taking the comebacker and appearing pretty shaken up, Crochet stayed in the game. He would go on to retire the side without much fanfare.

Somehow, Paddack responded with one of his easiest innings of the year, needing just eight pitches to retire the 8-9-1 hitters, with no hard contact to speak of. It also allowed him to start the fifth inning.

Without much time to recoup, Crochet responded by walking Larnach and Vazquez. Buxton worked an excellent at-bat and made good contact, but lined out to Duran in deep left, Ryan Jeffers popped out and Ty France tapped out to third to end the threat.

His velocity down, Paddack continued to show solid command, getting Devers to pop up and Bregman to ground out before inducing a fly out from Campbell. The line won't look great, but this was one of the best Chris Paddack outings of 2025.

While Crochet was lifted after five innings, he was relieved by the talented but oft-injured Garrett Whitlock, who looked filthy, retiring Correa on a pop up and striking out Jonah Bride and Brooks Lee in dominant fashion using his high octane sinker-slider mix.

He ran into some trouble in the seventh, walking the not-very-patient Harrison Bader and allowing a gapper single to Vazquez. Buxton then jumped on a first pitch slider, tapping to the shortstop Hamilton, who made a great play to retire Buxton. That did advance the runners, and Jeffers made Whitlock pay, crushing a hanging sweeper over Duran's head in left to tie the game.

That score summoned Louis Varland to face the 9-1-2 portion of Boston's lineup, and in contrast to Friday's outing, it went quite well, including a nasty curveball that struck out Devers to end the frame.

Correa then led off the eighth against righty Justin Slaten by singling off of Hamilton glove. Two quick outs followed, but the hot-hitting Harrison Bader demolished a Slaten fastball off the green monster, scoring Correa from first.

The hot and cold season of Larnach continued afterward, with the Twins left fielder dribbling a single through the right side of the infield to score Bader for a crucial insurance run. Of course, Boston wouldn't go down quietly- Wilyer Abreu launched a mammoth solo home run off of Griffin Jax in the eighth to make it a one run game. It was a challenge fastball that wasn't far enough inside to avoid the barrel of Abreu, who has impressed with an .808 OPS and good defense in right field during parts of three seasons in Boston.

Jhoan Duran came in for the save and induced two easy groundouts to start the frame. A third grounder forced third baseman Lee to his knees, which despite a good effort, allowed the speedy Cedane Rafaela to reach. A Duran-Duran matchup followed and it was Jarren who came undone, striking out on a disgusting curveball to end the game.
 

Trends:

C	Ryan Jeffers ?	Christian Vazquez ?
1B	Ty France
2B	Mickey Gasper	Brooks Lee ?	Edouard Julien ?
3B	Royce Lewis	Jose Miranda	Jonah Bride ?
SS	Carlos Correa
LF	Trevor Larnach
CF	Byron Buxton	Harrison Bader ?	DaShawn Keirsey Jr. ?
RF	Matt Wallner
UTIL	Willi Castro	Luke Keaschall
SP1	Pablo Lopez	Bailey Ober ?	Joe Ryan
SP2	Chris Paddack ?	Simeon Woods Richardson
CR	Jhoan Duran ?	Griffin Jax ?
SR	Brock Stewart	Louis Varland	Cole Sands
MR	Danny Coloumbe ?	Justin Topa	Michael Tonkin
LR	Randy Dobnak	Jorge Alcala ?	Kody Funderburk
		Healthy	Hurt
	Performing
	Contributing
	Low Impact/Slumping
	IL/Minors

 

What’s Next: The Twins are off Monday before beginning a three game set at Target Field Tuesday against the struggling Baltimore Orioles. Pablo Lopez (2-2, 2.25 ERA) will take the ball opposing former Twins farmhand Cade Povich (1-2, 5.16 ERA), a casualty of the ill-fated Jorge Lopez trade. Povich has mostly struggled this year, but he is a lefty- maybe a Royce Lewis return will help?

Postgame Interviews:

 

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Stewart	21	0	0	13	16	50
Durán	0	24	0	16	9	49
Jax	0	14	0	7	14	35
Coulombe	16	0	18	0	0	34
Sands	0	18	0	12	0	30
Varland	0	12	5	0	7	24
Alcalá	0	0	23	0	0	23
Topa	0	12	0	0	0	12

 

 

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[RpR]

[FlyingFinn]

Why is Paddack's fastball 95 in the 1st inning and 91 at the end of his outing? That seems like a bigger drop than most pitchers. 91 worked fine today but usually doesn't.

[Blyleven2011]

It's a win and that's just fine  ...

A little sloppy on the communication for the second game in a row , yesterday it was Correa and Clemens  , today it was larnach and bride , the ball drops between them and official scorer can't  figure out who made the error so he went the easy way out and gave it a hit  , someone has to be given an error , these are professional  players and my grandmother could of caught that ...

That missed catch is on Rocco and his lack of fielding practice  , you have new players that haven't worked much together , you better have them practicing together so they can avoid these mistakes  ...

we took the series against Boston and road trip was 3 wins and 4 losses ...

The road trip could of been worse and it could have been better , we should of won more games in Cleveland  and I didn't think we would beat crochet and Boston  ...

I'm just speaking the truth  , something I wish falvey would tell the fans or at least take the responsibility of this team performance  ...

One thing I'm seeing on this last road trip is some players taking an outside pitch to the opposite field , if that continues that will boost players performances , guaranteed  ...

[UK Twin]

I was hoping for a 4-3 road trip so 3-4 isn't too bad. Huge to get these back to back wins. Paddack settled down after struggling through the first 3 innings and managed to go 5. Did a good job in getting Crochet's pitch count up early so they had to go to the bullpen after 5 as well. 

Great swing by Bader for his go ahead double off the Monster. 

[Doctor Gast]

I had a feeling before the game that if they could have good ABs against Crochet & drive up his pitch counts for an early exit, we had a good chance to win the game.

[thelanges5]

Something to build on. First series win in Boston since 2019. Good weekend to follow up that brutal series against the Guardos and their devil magic. 

[JD-TWINS]

42 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

It's a win and that's just fine  ...

A little sloppy on the communication for the second game in a row , yesterday it was Correa and Clemens  , today it was larnach and bride , the ball drops between them and official scorer can't  figure out who made the error so he went the easy way out and gave it a hit  , someone has to be given an error , these are professional  players and my grandmother could of caught that ...

That missed catch is on Rocco and his lack of fielding practice  , you have new players that haven't worked much together , you better have them practicing together so they can avoid these mistakes  ...

we took the series against Boston and road trip was 3 wins and 4 losses ...

The road trip could of been worse and it could have been better , we should of won more games in Cleveland  and I didn't think we would beat crochet and Boston  ...

I'm just speaking the truth  , something I wish falvey would tell the fans or at least take the responsibility of this team performance  ...

One thing I'm seeing on this last road trip is some players taking an outside pitch to the opposite field , if that continues that will boost players performances , guaranteed  ...

Didn’t see the game today.

You gotta be kidding me - a ball your grandmother could have caught but dropped in the outfield is the Manager’s fault? Seriously?

When does this practice time come into play? They just played 13 straight days. Since when does the Manager conduct OF practice? It’s not high school.

How can you mock Larnach & Bride and point out that they are professionals & never should have let the ball drop and then say ….. however, it’s actually the Manager’s fault it dropped. Makes no sense IMO.

I’m not in love with Rocco but I typically stick up for him when logic doesn’t seem to be applied.

[jkcarew]

Great win! Nice series win.

[thelanges5]

The force was with Darth Bader today. 

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, Blyleven2011 said:

That missed catch is on Rocco and his lack of fielding practice  , you have new players that haven't worked much together , you better have them practicing together so they can avoid these mistakes  ...

 

The fly ball error was 100% on Trevor Larnach. Totally agree that an error should be given on that play. The ball was in the air for a fair amount of time and within a short casual trot from where Larnach was playing. While Bride may have called for the ball, a routine fly ball to an outfielder is always the responsibility of the outfielder.

The Twins seem to be very focused and working hard. The bats are starting to earn base hits. Now the team must be a little more productive with RISP. The season is still in a formative stage.

[Jocko87]

Nice series but you can't help noticing the speed Boston is able to consistently deploy. Was in and out all weekend but every time I looked there was a fast guy being a problem.

Would be a nice element to have in multiple places.

[Western SD Fan]

It's amazing how actually playing the games can change perspective.  I went into the week figuring a 3-4 week would have been a success considering the way the team has been playing this season thus far and the teams they were facing this past week.  After the week, it's almost disappointing as we could have had 5 or 6 wins this week.  Sometimes in the end, you have to remember what your expectations were and be happy with the results no matter how it happened.  With that being said, we have 6 of the next 9 games against the scuffling Orioles and may well define how either team's season will go.  Here's hoping this weekend builds some fight in this team going forward!

[jmlease1]

Nice to see the Twins get a win against a good lefty. Complicated day for Larnach, who should have gotten an error, but got a hit and a walk. Didn't feel like he was running on his own when he was thrown out on the steal attempt, so curious to know what was going on there.

Jax giving up a dinger makes you wonder if he's just going to be the whipping boy in the bullpen this year, and get no breaks, but there's a lot of season to go. Varland seems to be fitting in just fine, though and Duran is coping with his loss of velocity without too much trouble.

Bride looked helpless at the plate today, but not a lot of options. Looking forward to getting Lewis back. His relentless positivity probably can';t hurt the team either.

Happy to see them win some close ones, especially after that frustrating series in Cleveland. Hells bells, they outscored Cleveland by 6 runs in the series and lost 3 of 4 because they couldn't win a close one. Two straight tight wins against Boston on the road helps.

 

[AceWrigley]

Carlos Correa says:

 

[knothole61]

6 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

It's a win and that's just fine  ...

A little sloppy on the communication for the second game in a row , yesterday it was Correa and Clemens  , today it was larnach and bride , the ball drops between them and official scorer can't  figure out who made the error so he went the easy way out and gave it a hit  , someone has to be given an error , these are professional  players and my grandmother could of caught that ...

That missed catch is on Rocco and his lack of fielding practice  , you have new players that haven't worked much together , you better have them practicing together so they can avoid these mistakes  ...

we took the series against Boston and road trip was 3 wins and 4 losses ...

The road trip could of been worse and it could have been better , we should of won more games in Cleveland  and I didn't think we would beat crochet and Boston  ...

I'm just speaking the truth  , something I wish falvey would tell the fans or at least take the responsibility of this team performance  ...

One thing I'm seeing on this last road trip is some players taking an outside pitch to the opposite field , if that continues that will boost players performances , guaranteed  ...

I've played a lot of OF (good for me) and there's nothing worse than a pesky, aggressive infielder meandering too far into the outfield and flailing around, desperately looking for a ball that I can clearly see. Why do they do that? Anyway, that was Larnach's ball and he needed to call it right away to keep Bride at bay. If he did call it and Bride kept coming, I'd have him sit the rest of the game. But...nice win!    

[Linus]

I was following on mlb gameday. They had Paddack at 92-93 from the very first inning. Don’t know how accurate that is. His stuff seems to vary quite a bit. 

[knothole61]

Very happy with that win. Paddack bent but did not break, despite throwing a ton of pitches and some clutch hits arrived late.

I've been critical of Baldelli for the better part of two years now, but credit where credit is due: I think that he handled Jax very well (when he was up against he ropes with that massive ERA) by giving him a brief rest and then using him in lower leverage situations in the 7th inning. It seemingly built this confidence a bit. But today, Jax faced the meat of the Red Sox order in the 8th, (and he had also pitched the day before)--and pow, a home run. Rocco, use Jax every other day at most and never as a set-up man or closer, at least for a while, and all should be well,

Jax has excellent stuff and great potential, but at this point in his career I think that he works best when he's very well rested and is used earlier in the game.  

[Aerodeliria]

The Twin are amazingly in second place after the win! What a weekend! Wins count triple for a limited time only!

[SF Twins Fan]

8 hours ago, Aerodeliria said:

The Twin are amazingly in second place after the win! What a weekend! Wins count triple for a limited time only!

How are the Guardians 20-14 when they have a negative 23 run differential??  They have an expected W/L record of 15-19.  Somethings got to give there.

[chpettit19]

9 hours ago, knothole61 said:

Very happy with that win. Paddack bent but did not break, despite throwing a ton of pitches and some clutch hits arrived late.

I've been critical of Baldelli for the better part of two years now, but credit where credit is due: I think that he handled Jax very well (when he was up against he ropes with that massive ERA) by giving him a brief rest and then using him in lower leverage situations in the 7th inning. It seemingly built this confidence a bit. But today, Jax faced the meat of the Red Sox order in the 8th, (and he had also pitched the day before)--and pow, a home run. Rocco, use Jax every other day at most and never as a set-up man or closer, at least for a while, and all should be well,

Jax has excellent stuff and great potential, but at this point in his career I think that he works best when he's very well rested and is used earlier in the game.  

The game before Jax was used in the 7th because that was when the heart of Boston's order was up while Stewart was crashing and burning and he came in and got Bregman and Abreu out to save the Twins from another ugly loss. His appearance before that (May 1st) Jax threw in the 8th inning of a 2-2 game against Cleveland's 2-3-4 hitters and struck out 2 of them (Jose Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo) in a 1-2-3 inning. 

Yesterday wasn't his first time back in a high leverage spot. Let's not overreact to 1 pitch. I know those back to back blowup games freaked people out, but Jax has still been mostly lights out this year.