Twins 9, Marlins 1: Zebby Matthews Dominates in Season Debut and Twins Secure Series-Victory

[Sam Caulder]

Image courtesy of Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images

Box Score

SP: Zebby Matthews - 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K (83 pitches, 56 strikes (67% strikes))

Home Runs: None

Top 3 WPA: Zebby Matthews (0.18), Austin Martin (0.18), James Outman (0.09)

The Twins entered Thursday’s rubber match against Miami looking to secure the series after splitting the first two games. Behind a brilliant season debut from Zebby Matthews and a much more opportunistic offensive performance, they did exactly that.

Minnesota jumped on the Marlins early, backed Matthews with plenty of run support, and cruised to a comfortable 9-1 victory at Target Field. The win secured the series for the Twins and improved them to 20-24 on the season.

ZEBBY MATTHEWS SHINES IN SEASON DEBUT
Making his first major league start of the season after being called up earlier in the day to replace Travis Adams, Zebby Matthews looked completely in control for most of the afternoon.

Miami put a pair of runners on base in the opening inning after singles from Liam Hicks and Otto Lopez, but Matthews stayed composed and escaped the frame without damage. He needed just 12 pitches to get through the inning, throwing nine strikes and immediately showing an aggressive approach in the zone.

From there, he only got sharper.

Matthews struck out Jakob Marsee and Owen Caissie in a dominant second inning, and through two frames had thrown only 25 pitches, 19 of them for strikes. He continued to pound the zone throughout the afternoon, mixing his fastball and changeup effectively while consistently getting ahead in counts.

By the middle innings, Miami had no answers. Matthews retired the side in order in the third, worked around a two-out double from Christopher Morel in the fourth, and erased a fifth-inning single with an inning-ending double play. Through six innings, the Marlins still hadn’t had a leadoff hitter reach base.

The only bit of trouble came in the seventh, when Kyle Stowers drew a leadoff walk, but Matthews calmly worked around it to finish off seven scoreless innings.

In total, Matthews allowed just three hits across seven shutout innings while striking out five. He threw 83 pitches in the outing and looked every bit like a pitcher capable of giving the Twins rotation a significant boost moving forward.

THE TWINS CAPITALIZE AFTER EARLY FRUSTRATION
Minnesota threatened immediately against Miami left-hander Braxton Garrett, but nearly let a golden opportunity slip away.

Austin Martin opened the bottom of the first with a four-pitch walk and quickly stole second base. Brooks Lee followed with a double off the wall in left field, and Ryan Jeffers worked a walk to load the bases with nobody out. What followed felt painfully familiar.

Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, and Luke Keaschall all struck out swinging, allowing Garrett to escape the inning completely unscathed despite needing 34 pitches to get through it. This time, though, the Twins responded instead of spiraling.

Royce Lewis opened the second inning with a walk, Ryan Kreidler singled in his first start since being called up earlier in the day, and James Outman drew another walk to once again load the bases with nobody out.

Martin made sure this opportunity didn’t go to waste.

The Twins outfielder ripped a two-run double down the left field line to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead, and after Brooks Lee grounded out, Bell delivered a huge bounce-back moment. The veteran first baseman chopped a ball off third base that brought home two more runs and gave the Twins a 4-0 advantage, while also recording the 700th RBI of his career.

Caratini later added an RBI groundout, and just like that, the Twins had turned an inning of frustration into a five-run outburst.

THE OFFENSE KEEPS ADDING ON
The Twins didn’t stop there.

In the third inning, Kreidler reached again on a sharply hit ball that deflected off Otto Lopez’s glove, then advanced to second after a throwing error from reliever Calvin Faucher on a pickoff attempt. Moments later, Outman lined a two-strike single into right field to score Kreidler and extend the lead to 6-0. Outman wasn’t done contributing.

After Miami finally broke through for its first run against Kendry Rojas in the eighth inning, the Twins immediately answered in the bottom half. Keaschall singled through the right side and later stole second base, his tenth stolen base of the season, before Kreidler worked a walk.

Outman then ripped a double into the left-center field gap, scoring both runners and pushing the lead to 8-1. Martin followed with another RBI single to cap off the scoring and finish off a huge afternoon offensively for the Twins lineup.

After entering the game without an RBI on the season, Outman finished with three RBIs, while Martin reached base three times and drove in three runs of his own.

A MUCH-NEEDED COMPLETE PERFORMANCE
For a team that’s struggled to put together complete games this season consistently, Thursday looked much closer to the formula the Twins envisioned coming into the year.

The offense capitalized with runners on base after an ugly first inning, the defense played clean baseball throughout most of the afternoon, and Matthews gave Minnesota exactly the efficient, stabilizing start the rotation desperately needed.

Even with another shaky inning from Kendry Rojas in relief, the outcome never truly felt in doubt. The Twins controlled the game from the second inning on and closed out an emphatic 9-1 win to take the series from Miami.

What’s Next?
The Twins will kick off a three-game weekend series at Target Field against the Brewers, starting tomorrow. Neither pitcher for the series opener has been announced. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM.

Postgame Interviews
Coming Soon!

Bullpen Availability Chart

 

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[4twinsJA]

Hope Zebby keeps it up and makes it hard to return him to AAA.

[jmlease1]

Great start by Zebby! Exactly what the team needed after a poor start the night before. Also very happy to see the team not sleepwalk through it on getaway day.

I'm not sold on Outman, even if he had a good game. I'd still be looking to bring up Rodriguez if he gets healthy soon. But I'll take anything we get.

Austin Martin is having a fine start to his season. I think I'd rather see him in LF than RF, but that's a small thing

[Nshore]

Before the season started I wanted Matthews and Ober moved to the bullpen.  Um.... maybe not.

[Dman]

I didn't know what to make of Zebby's start to this season as he was penciled in as the 5th starter and he really struggled even in AAA.  Maybe that time in AAA got him back on track because he sure looked locked in today.  Hope he keeps this up.

I really didn't see him going 7 today or being this dominant.  A true pleasant surprise.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Hooray for Zebby. I enjoyed seeing a North Carolina battery combo having success...just like the North Carolina battery combo of Ober and Jeffers two days ago.  Now lets just bring up another North Carolinian, Walker Jenkins and a SS who played at a North Carolina university, Wake Forest. Yep, Marek Houston.  Hopefully the Twins will draft my lefthanded pitching North Carolinian grandson in a few years. North Carolinians Jim Perry and Mark Davidson would be so proud. 

[GNess]

Zebby has shown signs multiple times of being an effective MLB SP. If he can just produce good outings more regularly he becomes a solid asset to the Twin

[AceWrigley]

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

12 minutes ago, AceWrigley said:

Good Lord!  James Outman now has a higher batting average than Royce Lewis.

[Blyleven2011]

A Good afternoon get away day game ...

Can't make this up , zebby was summoned from St Paul  , he made his first appearance of the season and he pitched a very good game , 7 shutout innings and he probably could of gone longer  ...

The bats came alive and delivered clutch hitting after the first inning ...

Outman had his best game this season  , Austin Martin continues to shine an̈d I'd like it if they leave him at the top of batting order ...

[Richie the Rally Goat]

1 hour ago, 4twinsJA said:

Hope Zebby keeps it up and makes it hard to return him to AAA.

I hope he makes it easy to move Sim to the bullpen

[Parfigliano]

20 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

I hope he makes it easy to move Sim to the bullpen

SWRs meatballs will get hit just as easily out of the bullpen.  He isn't MLB material.

[Danchat]

I've been a proponent of keeping Matthews in the rotation as he's shown glimmers of ability to get deep into games, glad to see him backing up my claims. After seeing this Miami squad get shutout 16 total innings between Ober and Matthews, SWR couldn't even had an okay outing against them... not a good sign. Thankfully Simeon's replacement has arrived and looks good to go.