Twins 4, Tigers 2: Taj Bradley Bests Cy Young Skubal to Down Detroit

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of © Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Taj Bradley 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K (104 pitches, 68 strikes (65%))
Home Runs: N/A
Top 3 WPA: Bradley (0.28), Ryan Jeffers (0.17), Justin Topa (0.10)

Win Probability Chart (via BaseballSavant) 

The Twins looked to build more Central Division momentum against the Tigers on another chilly night at Target Field. The players looked like they were facing a snowball fight, but Tarik Skubal and Taj Bradley were throwing nothing but filthy heat early on. 

An Ace vs. An Ace in the Hole?
Both of the starting pitchers in tonight's contest began their Major League journeys via the 2018 draft. Skubal came to the Tigers in the 9th round, and emerged quickly into a quality big-league arm in 2021. He came into tonight's contest as a back-to-back Cy Young winner, who has been rewarded with the largest arbitration contract in history at $32 million. Bradley was selected higher in the 5th round of the 2018 draft by the Rays, but his rise into a consistent Major League starting role has been a longer and less successful path. While Bradley has been starting since 2023, he looks primed to enjoy his first taste of success with the Twins for an annual salary of $820,000. Skubal was drafted out of college, while Bradley was selected straight out of high school, so the 29-year old Tiger southpaw should be ahead of the 25-year old young Twins fireballer. Would tonight's game give Twins fans a glimpse of a potential ace in the hole for years to come in the Twins rotation?

The first three innings saw traffic on the basepaths, with the Tigers loading the bases in the top of the second before Bradley induced a Colt Keith groundout on a nasty splitter to end the threat. Skubal allowed a Victor Caratini double with one out and struck out Matt Wallner and got Royce Lewis to flyout to end a runner at third with only one out opportunity. Again the Twins got leadoff clutter in the bottom of the third thanks to Brooks Lee and Byron Buxton singles. Austin Martin couldn't put down a bunt, and instead banged into a double play that helped end another chance at taking the lead. 

Middle Innings...One Ace Remains
As the game progressed, the offense did not. The Twins got some more base clutter in the bottom of the fourth, but Lewis once again teased Twins fans with a warning track blast to end the inning. Javier Baez singled and found his way into scoring position in the top of the fifth, but red hot rookie Kevin McGonigle popped up a 3-0 fastball from Bradley to end that threat. The low-light of the Minnesota offense came in the first at-bat of the bottom of the fifth, when Lee bunted the first pitch he saw but forgot to hold onto his bat tightly. The ball dribbled in front of home plate, and the bat flew up and tried to remove Lee's lower incisors. But before a goose egg could land on the scoreboard as well, the Twins got patient and then finally cashed in on a RISP. Buxton and Martin worked walks off of Skubal, and Luke Keaschall stepped up to the plate like a man unhinged, and he ripped a single up the middle to plate Buxton and to put the Twins ahead 1-0. 

With runners still at first and second, Ryan Jeffers battled the Cy Young winner until he finally got a two-strike slider that he could handle, lacing a two-run double into the right field corner!

After a Caratini strikeout, Josh Bell thought that a two-strike changeup was the pitch to hit, looping a double down the left field line to score Jeffers and to chase Skubal from the game down 4-0 without completing the fifth inning.

Cy Bradley
With a solid lead, and all of his pitches behaving well despite the frigid temps, Bradley cruised into the seventh inning with nine strikeouts and needing only two more to tie his career high. Taj was rudely greeted by two straight singles to start the inning, but Derek Shelton left him in to face the righty Baez and to eclipse the 100 pitch mark. Bradley rewarded his skipper with his 10th strikeout of the game, and Taylor Rogers came in to try to clean up the rest of the mess. Pinch-hitter Jamai Jones obliged with a flyout to right, but it was deep enough to advance the lead runner Torkelson to third. McGonigle showed why he's been such a tough out by lacing a single to left, to cut it to a 4-1 Twins advantage. Jeffers achieved his second strikeout challenge of the game to end the threat, and to close the books on a great start by Bradley.

 

Will the Twins Bullpen Waste a Winning Hand?
Rogers stayed in to tackle the lefty Riley Greene, and then Cole Sands was summoned to assumably end the night with five outs. The first out hit Lewis' glove at about 100 mph, but the next outs wouldn't be gotten by Sands as he lost all connection to the strike zone. After nine more pitches, there were Tigers on first and second and Eric Orze couldn't get ready fast enough. Kerry Carpenter came in to try to break the hearts of the approximately 1,824 fans in attendance, but Orze struck him out and kept the Twins in possession of a winning hand.

The bottom of the eighth found the bases loaded with Twins yet again, and yet again in this fledgling season the Twins found a way to leave them there. The pressure switch turned back towards the Twins bullpen, and Orze allowed a leadoff double to Baez and another to McGonigle with one out to tighten the score up to 4-2. With the tying run now at the plate, Shelton called in Justin Topa. Topa immediately induced a Gleyber Torres groundout, but lost Riley Greene to a full count walk. Dillon Dingler represented the tying run, but a Topa sinker represented a Twins victory, as Dingler bounced out to Lee to finally secure the win for Bradley.

What’s Next?
The Twins look to take their first series of the season in the third game of the season Wednesday evening. Twins righty Bailey Ober (0-0, 6.75 ERA) looks to improve upon his consistent but slow start to the 2026 campaign. In two starts, Ober has gone four innings, surrendering four hits and three runs in both outings. The Tigers will counter with the rumored Twins free agent target, lefty Framber Valdez (1-0, 0.75 ERA) who has just been consistently awesome. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Rogers	0	23	18	0	12	41
Orze	37	0	0	12	19	37
Topa	17	0	15	0	14	32
Banda	17	15	0	17	0	32
Sands	0	0	21	0	12	21
Laweryson	10	9	0	14	0	19
Funderburk	2	0	3	20	0	5
Acton	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

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[GopherMike]

I think Derek Falvey uno-reversed the Tampa Bay Rays. 

[jorgenswest]

Bradley outpitched Skubal. Wow! 

The Twins have batted with the bases full 25 times this season. The next closest at the time of broadcast report is 19. Wow!

 

[TheLeviathan]

Another great start by Bradley.  Great at-bat by Jeffers that was the difference in the game.

My god why is this team allergic to the bases being loaded?

[LastOnePicked]

Cy Bradley. A taj overdone ... but I like it.

[tony&rodney]

The Twins are playing hard. There are plays and plate appearances that don't work out but the effort is good. 

Tonight the plan versus Skubal looked strong; they made Tarik work. The bullpen continues to baffle us a bit with the four pitch walks but also wiggling through innings. 

Leaving the challenges to Jeffers proved big tonight with two inning ending challenge calls that ended Tiger attempts to score.

Wish that Martin had managed to get the bunt down but Skubal is really tough. The ball has such sharp late movement.

Lastly, sending Taj Bradley out for the 7th inning was huge in my mind. The pitchers look forward to real confidence from their manager. When the pitcher is throwing well, let them go past 100 pitches. Bert was standing up cheering Bradley from his home in Ft. Myers.

[Danchat]

That's two good wins in a row... impressive. Let's see if that's a flash in the pan or actual progress.

1 hour ago, GopherMike said:

think Derek Falvey uno-reversed the Tampa Bay Rays. 

Between Joe Ryan, Taj Bradley, and so far Orze, Falvey's best trades were with the Rays. Oh, and the Odorizzi trade too. They need to stop trading with us!

[h2oface]

I have never seen a batter hit himself in the face with the bat bunting like Lee did. It seemed to only start really hurting when he took a look at the feeble bunt result and just quit after a couple seconds. No effort to force a play at all. Then he was finished with  his at bat, conceding the out, and bent over, And he didn’t come out of game, either. Back on the field after the team posted 4 runs. Weird. I guess we will see if any swelling happens in the next couple days. Bunting continues to be a challenge for this team. 

[JDubs]

OK, we won a game yesterday. [Now] we win today, it's called 'two in a row'. And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a 'winning streak'... It has happened before!

[knothole61]

Poor Lee, he looks like he's in a bit of a stupor at times. I think that a hitch in St. Paul may be in the offing for him. 

[Blyleven2011]

Enjoyed the game  , lots of activity on the bases and timely hitting against a very good pitcher and a lefty to boot ...

A winning streak of 3 would be encouraging against the detroit favorites to win the central ...

[UK Twin]

Bradley just continues to improve. I know he's had command issues but I don't understand why the Rays let him go so easily. His stuff is electric. Jax is a good reliever but he's not lights out. Last night Bradley was having trouble with his fastball so he simply went to his other pitches. His splitter was unhittable. 

Thought we handled Skubal very well - not many will knock him out after less than 5 innings. 

[Peter]

We beat skubal!!! Maybe twins aren’t as bad as everyone says they are- huge huge huge win!!! 9th inning got nervous but tupa got it done!!! Let’s get win today and take this series!!! Go Twins!!!

[LewFordLives]

Bradley set the tone. The bullpen made it more exciting than it needed to be, but they didn't break. Nice win.

[jmlease1]

A very nice win. Props to the Twins offense for working counts and really making Skubal work (and he was definitely not very comfortable in the cold weather; he even got a pitch clock violation because he was spending so much time trying to keep his hand warm).

Bradley looked really good, again. His stuff is excellent, the pitch mix is strong...as long as he's commanding his pitches and finishing off batters efficiently then he's a really good pitcher.

Seems like there might be a little bit of a shift in bullpen usage for the Twins: they appear to be more interested in matchups vs having a pitcher start an inning "clean" this season? This may be tied to having more LHP in the bullpen, maybe it's just a bit of a fluke, but it seems like we're seeing more guys get 2 outs to finish an inning and then come out to get one more the next inning than we used to. Curious to see how that trend goes?

Twins continue to get the barrage of LH starters. Hopefully they can continue to survive it...

[Doctor Gast]

I’ve been blocked from this site for a long time. Thanks to Brock, I’m back. I’m limited only on my cellphone. Hope I can get back to my notebook because I really suck at texting on my phone 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

9 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

Another great start by Bradley.  Great at-bat by Jeffers that was the difference in the game.

My god why is this team allergic to the bases being loaded?

Because they can't bunt and won't hit the ball to the opposite field. They all covet grand slams, to no avail (Except for little used utility man, Gray) 

[Doctor Gast]

Great rally started at the top of the order against Skubal, to cement a great pitching dual win for Bradley 

[Doctor Gast]

Many MN fans are pessimistic about this team. I was pessimistic about the team when they looked much better on paper. But now with Falvey gone, I’m much more optimistic, even though Falvey was involved with setting up this team and orchestrated this off-season 

[laloesch]

7 hours ago, h2oface said:

I have never seen a batter hit himself in the face with the bat bunting like Lee did. It seemed to only start really hurting when he took a look at the feeble bunt result and just quit after a couple seconds. No effort to force a play at all. Then he was finished with  his at bat, conceding the out, and bent over, And he didn’t come out of game, either. Back on the field after the team posted 4 runs. Weird. I guess we will see if any swelling happens in the next couple days. Bunting continues to be a challenge for this team. 

Yeah...uh....Lee.  The sooner Culpepper is called up the better. Luke Keaschall at 2nd and Kaelen Culpepper at 3rd.   

[laloesch]

5 hours ago, UK Twin said:

Bradley just continues to improve. I know he's had command issues but I don't understand why the Rays let him go so easily. His stuff is electric. Jax is a good reliever but he's not lights out. Last night Bradley was having trouble with his fastball so he simply went to his other pitches. His splitter was unhittable. 

Thought we handled Skubal very well - not many will knock him out after less than 5 innings. 

Yes, and that's the true sign of a pitcher not a guy that just throws and throws.  If your fastball, changeup, curveball, whatever pitch is not working that night you change things up and work through it.  That's a fantastic sign for Bradley and the Twins.

[karcherd]

6 minutes ago, laloesch said:

Yeah...uh....Lee.  The sooner Culpepper is called up the better. Luke Keaschall at 2nd and Kaelen Culpepper at 3rd.   

And who plays short,  Lewis isn't going anywhere this year, he is your third baseman.

[bunsen82]

7 hours ago, JDubs said:

OK, we won a game yesterday. [Now] we win today, it's called 'two in a row'. And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a 'winning streak'... It has happened before!

Yeah but our next 2 pitchers are Ober and Abel.  

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

Because they can't bunt and won't hit the ball to the opposite field. They all covet grand slams, to no avail (Except for little used utility man, Gray) 

The broadcast said they were hitting .250, at one point last night, with bases loaded. That’s better than their Team average of .211 ………. loading bases isn’t a free pass to runs. In the Twin’s case, if they load the bases they have already used up “the hits for that inning”. Just hope they keep creating the opportunities!

The BAD NEWS is Framber Valdez and his .75 ERA is going for Tigers tonight………hopefully, the weather will rattle him!

 

[JD-TWINS]

Gotta get in my daily swipe at Wallner - seems to be producing results 😉.

Chuckled last night when Matt did a nice job of taking a pitch down & away to left center …….. and Morneau said he’s already hit more balls left of 2B this year than he did all of last year!

With two more Tuesday, he’s maintaining his league leading stranglehold in the strikeout race.

[JD-TWINS]

Brooks Lee ……… he’s so disappointing to watch ……… his results gotta be in HIS head as well. Need to move him to St Paul before his spirit is completely broken, IMO.

He hurt his mouth bunting - there’s an article here on poor defense by Team, and he’s the poster boy……..confidence has to be at a real low! OPS+ of 30.

Let Gray play v. RH pitching for 6 weeks and bring up some RH option at SS to allow Lee to have a stab at “coming around” at AAA level.

If he’s not somewhat fixed by mid/late May hopefully Culpepper has shown enough to call up?

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

I’ve been blocked from this site for a long time. Thanks to Brock, I’m back. I’m limited only on my cellphone. Hope I can get back to my notebook because I really suck at texting on my phone 

Glad to have you back , what do you think of our catching situation now ? ...

[tony&rodney]

Taj Bradley has been very effective in his first three starts. He has good stuff and appears to have the physical stamina to go well beyond 100 pitches. What a bonus if he can throw 5-8 innings on a regular basis and keep the opposition below 4 runs.

It might not be so difficult to understand why Tampa Bay was so open to trading him last summer. The Rays had tried just about everything and Bradley had been demoted to the minor leagues. His pitching was ineffective. Reports indicated that Bradley preferred to pitch his own game, which tended to remove the catcher from the equation. What really stood out was that Bradley did not feel it was important to look at reports or know the hitters. While that was reported in several places, I do not have a handle on how that unfolded. The Rays had reached a dead end of sorts with Bradley. It wasn't acrimonious but it also was trending up.

Reports from Spring Training and early in the season is that Bradley is the same easy going guy as he was for Tampa Bay, but he has embraced knowledge and is working with the catchers. 

Who knows what exactly transpired with the Rays. It seems like being sent to AAA, getting traded, and reflecting on a deteriorating career may have moved Bradley to consider different viewpoints regarding his craft. Whatever the case, I am loathe to point a finger at the Rays or give undo credit to the Twins. Rather I will say that Taj has made some changes that are bearing fruit right now. Twins fans sure hope he continues forward and has a great year and career. I think Rays fans are hoping he does well too because it wasn't like Bradley was a bad teammate or unfriendly fellow. I'm just saying that sometimes people grow up and decide to accept some change. Only Bradley knows the answers for sure.

[JD-TWINS]

41 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Taj Bradley has been very effective in his first three starts. He has good stuff and appears to have the physical stamina to go well beyond 100 pitches. What a bonus if he can throw 5-8 innings on a regular basis and keep the opposition below 4 runs.

It might not be so difficult to understand why Tampa Bay was so open to trading him last summer. The Rays had tried just about everything and Bradley had been demoted to the minor leagues. His pitching was ineffective. Reports indicated that Bradley preferred to pitch his own game, which tended to remove the catcher from the equation. What really stood out was that Bradley did not feel it was important to look at reports or know the hitters. While that was reported in several places, I do not have a handle on how that unfolded. The Rays had reached a dead end of sorts with Bradley. It wasn't acrimonious but it also was trending up.

Reports from Spring Training and early in the season is that Bradley is the same easy going guy as he was for Tampa Bay, but he has embraced knowledge and is working with the catchers. 

Who knows what exactly transpired with the Rays. It seems like being sent to AAA, getting traded, and reflecting on a deteriorating career may have moved Bradley to consider different viewpoints regarding his craft. Whatever the case, I am loathe to point a finger at the Rays or give undo credit to the Twins. Rather I will say that Taj has made some changes that are bearing fruit right now. Twins fans sure hope he continues forward and has a great year and career. I think Rays fans are hoping he does well too because it wasn't like Bradley was a bad teammate or unfriendly fellow. I'm just saying that sometimes people grow up and decide to accept some change. Only Bradley knows the answers for sure.

Maturity, & the “change of scenery” are both big deals in this case, or so it appears. Just hope he keeps pitching with this type of composure!

[The Great Hambino]

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Seems like there might be a little bit of a shift in bullpen usage for the Twins: they appear to be more interested in matchups vs having a pitcher start an inning "clean" this season? This may be tied to having more LHP in the bullpen, maybe it's just a bit of a fluke, but it seems like we're seeing more guys get 2 outs to finish an inning and then come out to get one more the next inning than we used to. Curious to see how that trend goes?

I've noticed that too.  I'm sure carrying more lefties in the pen will lead to more matchup-based usage than normal since it's not really an option when you're only carrying one.  

It could also be a bit of a fact-finding mission as they are still trying to figure out what this motley crew can and can't do.  I wonder if this will decrease if/when roles become more defined.