Twins 8, Tigers 1: It's Always Nice to See Chris Paddack After a Tough Week

[Hans Birkeland]

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn- Imagn Images

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Thomas Hatch: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K (81 Pitches, 46 Strikes, 56.8%)
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (6), Byron Buxton (25), Brooks Lee (12)
Top 3 WPA: Lee (.182), Buxton (.157), Lewis (.127)
Win Probability Chart (Via FanGraphs):

Well, things have certainly taken a turn over the past week. A week ago, the Twins were playing inspired baseball (relative to how much talent was left on the roster). Fast-forward to today, and the team had lost five of the past six games, while their charming ownership group decided to pull the team off the market and sell an undisclosed amount of equity in the franchise in exchange for paying off the Pohlad's substantial debt. Fans who were heartened that, at least, the Pohlads would no longer be in charge after this dismal season were left looking for new coping strategies.

I'm sure that can't feel great for the players, either. Nobody wants to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates 2.0. They lost the first three games of a four-game set against the Detroit Tigers, from whom they took a road series a week and a half ago. And if they could have lost four out of those three, they would have.

Today, all the Twins had to throw at the Tigers was fungible waiver claim and swingman Thomas Hatch. Hatch has shown some gumption, to his credit, but his low-90s sinker-cutter combo can only survive for so long—or so it would seem. He looked good at the start, including an impressive strikeout of Barry Kerry Carpenter on a biting cutter, and catching Spencer Torkelson looking on a nice two-seamer to end the first. The second inning began with a walk and a single, before Javier Báez rapped into an easy double play and Trey Sweeney eventually flied out to end the threat.

Royce Lewis hit his first home run at Target Field this year in the bottom of the inning, teeing off against old friend Chris Paddack, who is just trying to give the Tigers innings at this point.

Paddack would work his way out of that inning, but in his Jekyll-and-Hyde season, he would prove to be the latter this afternoon. Hatch allowed a ringing double to Colt Keith in the third, and after Carpenter singled him home, one had thoughts that perhaps another jaunt through Detroit's order would not come without a lot of pain for the veteran journeyman. But Hatch wriggled out of it again, walking Torkelson but retiring Riley Greene and the hot-hitting Wenceel Pérez to end the frame.

It proved to be Paddack who couldn't handle the Twins the second time through. Byron Buxton greeted him with a second-deck home run to left field, and Trevor Larnach scorched a double into the right-center field gap. Luke Keaschall got a bloop single and, after an out, Ryan Jeffers also contributed a jam-shot single. Lewis worked a long at-bat, coming back from 0-2 to draw a walk, loading the bases for Brooks Lee. Lee got ahead in the count 2-0 and then looked foolish drawing a sword against a Paddack cutter. Glen Perkins, on the broadcast, thought this indicated that Lee was cheating to the fastball. As is typical of Paddack, he was bullheaded and threw a four-seamer up and in on Lee that the shortstop demolished to the right-field overhang, giving the Twins their first grand slam of the year, and a 7-1 lead.

Hatch seemed to appreciate the rest, and set down the Tigers quickly in the fourth. Buxton recorded his third hit in the Twins half of the inning, stole second, and scored on an attempted double play relay, giving the Twins ownership another reminder that they don't deserve his loyalty.

Hatch worked an even quicker fifth inning, and has now looked pretty great in two of his three appearances for the Twins thus far. Paddack finished his outing with five and two-thirds innings and allowed eight earned runs. If Enrique Jimenez so much as makes the majors, getting him for two months of Paddack and Randy Dobnak's salary is a legitimately great value trade.

Michael Tonkin and Cole Sands lived up to their new roles, striking out the side in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. The rest was cruise control.

Stray Observations:
-Lee has an outside shot at 20 homers this year after hitting his 12th today in 360 at-bats. His defensive miscues and sometimes lifeless at-bats have been pretty annoying, but contributing 15-18 home runs despite that would be one silver lining. Power was his biggest question mark as he rose through the minor leagues, and with his defense looking decent at shortstop, we might look back at his 2025 season as a harbinger for the kind of success that was once projected of him.

-James Outman did a lot of swinging early in counts. His third time facing Paddack, he did launch a triple off the outstretched glove of Pérez in right. I don't think there is a more favorable matchup than a lefty facing Paddack for a third time when he isn't on his game.

-Making his Twins debut was Génesis Cabrera, once a top prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals, who has bounced around since then with control issues capping his upside. The lefty reliever hit 97 MPH and recorded a 1-2-3 eighth inning.

What’s Next: The Twins welcome the Sacramento A's to Target Field beginning Tuesday, with Joe Ryan (12-5, 2.75 ERA) taking on Jacob Lopez (6-6, 3.30 ERA). The A's are one of the few teams behind the Twins in the American League standings, so this may become a battle of 2026 draft position. It is a pretty good pitching matchup, though, with Ryan having one of the better starting pitcher seasons in the Target Field era, and Lopez working his way into the rookie of the year mix, not allowing a single run over his past four starts while striking out 28.

Postgame Interviews:

 

Coming soon

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Hatch	0	0	0	0	81	81
Ureña	0	0	76	0	0	76
Topa	26	0	0	27	0	53
Kriske	0	11	0	29	0	40
Tonkin	0	9	0	15	16	40
Sands	0	25	0	0	14	39
Ramírez	0	11	8	0	16	35
Funderburk	6	13	0	10	0	29
Cabrera	0	0	0	0	9	9

 

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[jkcarew]

Objects in your mirror are closer than they appear, Tigers!

[Doctor Gast]

The Twins know Paddack very well & everyone who got the privilege to face him were greatly rewarded. I'd like to thank the Tigers for not bypassing him & letting our hitters unload on him for the win. Now I'm not saying that Paddack is a bad SP, but he was greatly put to a disadvantage. I wish him well.

With all this momentum going our way, it was hard for DET to get anything going against our weak pitching.

[RpR]

[JDHack23]

I'm happy I no longer have to watch Paddack every five starts!  Even better he's served up two easy wins for us which is only one short of what he earned this year with the Twins.  Even if the prospect doesn't pan out this was a winning trade.

[AceWrigley]

Whenever I read things like, "The Twins welcome the Sacramento A's to Target Field", I at first think it's some kind of pun.

[Danchat]

I found it funny when people said of the Paddack trade "we're going to have to face him soon!" as if that was a bad thing. His stint from early in the year was a mirage and the advanced stats suggesting that was true have been proven right.

[chopper0080]

The Brooks Lee slander needs to end.

[jimbo92107]

When I first saw Chris Paddack in San Diego, I thought he was going to be a right handed Clayton Kershaw. Two TJ surgeries later, I'm afraid his repertoir just isn't that special anymore. His fastball isn't that fast, and his curveball doesn't curve much. He can fool a few people by changing speeds and spotting his pitches, but it doesn't last, and a team that's familiar with his stuff can jump all over him, as the Twins did today. 

Meanwhile, the Twins are going nowhere this season, but at least they're doing it in a fairly interesting way. Keep bringing up the kids. That'll get some butts in the seats. So will lowering ticket prices.

Oh, and have a Brooks Lee "Pencil Day." First ten thousand fans get a #2 pencil! I wonder if some kids won't know what a pencil is...

[jmlease1]

A very nice win. Twins played very well, which surprised me considering that it was supposed to be a bullpen game and we don't currently have one. But Hatch did good. Not sold on him yet, but he did good. Maybe Detroit thought the Twins were quitting and they didn't need to try today, but regardless they got mowed down pretty well.

Paddack was the bad Paddack today. Interesting that Hinch took the attitude of "you made this mess, you get out of it" rather than yank him.

Wonder if anyone will accuse Buxton of just going through the motions again?

[knothole61]

Nice win!

Paddack is an odd one...very inconsistent to be sure. In the 4 starts he's had since the trade, the Twins have handed him his lunch twice but in the other 2 starts he has a 1.54 ERA, I think they said. He still can be very good at times and I think he will help the Tigers more than he hurts them the rest of the season.   

[David HK]

Hey, we won one!  So, that's good.

Backhanded kudos to the Sheriff, for taking one for the team- as he'd done in a Twinkie uniform at times....

[Doctor Wu]

8 hours ago, chopper0080 said:

The Brooks Lee slander needs to end.

Well .... it will end when Brooks starts putting together a string of impressive games at bat and on the field. For every good game like today, he seems to follow it up with an 0-for-4 line the next day. At least let's wait until he gets his OBP over .300 before we declare him a star. I'm still a bit dubious. 

[chopper0080]

18 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

Well .... it will end when Brooks starts putting together a string of impressive games at bat and on the field. For every good game like today, he seems to follow it up with an 0-for-4 line the next day. At least let's wait until he gets his OBP over .300 before we declare him a star. I'm still a bit dubious. 

There is a large world between a star and demoted to the minors. Maybe we explore that area until the Twins have someone who outperforms him.

[CRF]

Paddack was actually the one guy that I didn't mind being shipped out. 

[Doctor Wu]

9 minutes ago, CRF said:

Paddack was actually the one guy that I didn't mind being shipped out. 

I actually thought that he would thrive in Detroit. Well, his first game with them was impressive, but since then he's reverted back to the Paddack that frustrated us so much. 

[USAFChief]

10 hours ago, chopper0080 said:

The Brooks Lee slander needs to end.

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

[stringer bell]

After two TJ surgeries, it appears The Sheriff now has ordinary stuff. If he has his best command, he can succeed, but his margin for error is really small, not unlike the retreads that are currently on the Twins' pitching staff.

[David HK]

Hm.  I honestly didn't remember the return for the Sheriff in the trade, so just checked in to see Enrique Jimenez homered in 3 straight games, including a grand salami.  

Hm. 

[David Maro]

Don't get too excited they just ran into a batting practice pitcher named Paddock.

Thank God its football season in a couple of weeks.