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.

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Compliment Shelton for leaving Ober in the game a couple days ago and now Zebby is having a great start and he gets pulled at only 83 pitches. 🤦‍♂️ Really nice start for Zebby. Love seeing it. 

Outman hits? Who knew? Batting average higher than Royce now. Wonder how much longer Lewis has before he's teammates with Wallner again? 

Maybe a little Nitpicking, but I'd prefer Martin in left. 

 

[Peter]

Zebby pitched great outman and Martin were excellent!!! Great series win as it’s 4 out of 6 wins!!! Great start to homestand!!!

[weitz41]

Let's keep those series victories rolling.

[jkcarew]

Matthews…encouraging…love the ZERO walks.

 

Here we are again, past the quarter pole, and the season is unfolding exactly like ownership and management would have hoped. 1.5 out of the wildcard in a putrid division…and a putrid league…the 6th BEST run differential in the AL. Never mind the actual W/L record or that the absolute ceiling is lower than the floor of the teams that will end up in the postseason…the floor is sufficiently high (given the relative state of competition) to keep this group happy. Groundhogs Day.

[stringer bell]

Impressive outing from Matthews. As many are saying, there really is no such thing as too much starting pitching. Obviously, there will be injuries and disappointments, but Matthews, Abel, Bradley, Ober, Prielipp and Ryan should be the envy of most teams in terms of upside and cost control.

Reading through the game threads, there are plenty of negative comments. Many are deserved and the Twins have a boatload of players who are producing far below expectations. I try to temper my complaints by looking at other teams and seeing if they are similarly afflicted and most teams are. It's far from automatic to get a runner in from third with less than two out and hitting with runners in scoring position comes and goes for every club. We live in a high strikeout era and many teams have bad defenders. The last three teams the Twins have played all are behind the Twins in defensive runs saved.

Shelton is in a bit of a honeymoon phase right now, but he'll eventually be criticized for pulling (or not pulling) a pitcher and using the "wrong" players.  

[Jacksson]

Observations:

To begin the game with the bases loaded and no outs, yet come away with NO RUNS SCORED is an embarrassment ant a poor reflection on the coaching abilities of the Hitting Coach  and the Assistant Hitting Coach.  Additional hitting and situational hitting practice for the entire team is called for.

Regardless of the scope of the lead, there is ZERO excuse for a reliever to enter the game, get 2 quick outs, then walk 2 batters and then give up a run scoring, shutout ending, RBI single before getting the final out of the inning.  Extra bullpen session for Rojas with the focus on throwing STRIKES !!  Additionally, the Home Plate Umpire' strike call pattern needs to be communicated to and shared with relievers entering the game.  That is on the: Catcher, Manager and Pitching Coach.

Outman has now reached Wallner's level of offensive performance.

Lewis' offensive performance STINKS.

Bell can clearly look down from .214 and see the Mendoza Line.

Caratini has become the same level of offensive performer as the previous free agent catcher who was signed out of the Astros' organization for $30MM over 3 years.

Kreidler is now tied for second place with Jeffers in team BA, behind only Martin.

Of the Twins' 7 Strikeouts on the day, Bell had 3 and Keaschall had 2.  Both must have found game conditions to be too hot and tried to cool things off by swinging at and missing pitches.  Extra batting practice focusing on making contact for these two. 

For a player signed to play FIRST BASE, Bell sure "plays" DH quite a bit.

FINALLY:  Miami actually has a relief pitcher named Jo King, no fooling. 

 

[knothole61]

6 hours ago, weitz41 said:

Let's keep those series victories rolling.

Fingers crossed...but the Brewers will be tough and will own the allegiance of half of the crowd at least!

[knothole61]

1 hour ago, Jacksson said:

Observations:

To begin the game with the bases loaded and no outs, yet come away with NO RUNS SCORED is an embarrassment ant a poor reflection on the coaching abilities of the Hitting Coach  and the Assistant Hitting Coach.  Additional hitting and situational hitting practice for the entire team is called for.

Regardless of the scope of the lead, there is ZERO excuse for a reliever to enter the game, get 2 quick outs, then walk 2 batters and then give up a run scoring, shutout ending, RBI single before getting the final out of the inning.  Extra bullpen session for Rojas with the focus on throwing STRIKES !!  Additionally, the Home Plate Umpire' strike call pattern needs to be communicated to and shared with relievers entering the game.  That is on the: Catcher, Manager and Pitching Coach.

Outman has now reached Wallner's level of offensive performance.

Lewis' offensive performance STINKS.

Bell can clearly look down from .214 and see the Mendoza Line.

Caratini has become the same level of offensive performer as the previous free agent catcher who was signed out of the Astros' organization for $30MM over 3 years.

Kreidler is now tied for second place with Jeffers in team BA, behind only Martin.

Of the Twins' 7 Strikeouts on the day, Bell had 3 and Keaschall had 2.  Both must have found game conditions to be too hot and tried to cool things off by swinging at and missing pitches.  Extra batting practice focusing on making contact for these two. 

For a player signed to play FIRST BASE, Bell sure "plays" DH quite a bit.

FINALLY:  Miami actually has a relief pitcher named Jo King, no fooling. 

 

And then there's the Pho King Good Vietnamese restaurant in Auburn, California. Try their Pork Banh Mi if you are ever in town. 

[knothole61]

Outman raises his average 45 points in one afternoon while Lewis is 0 for 3 and soon may be hitting in the 150's! Time for a demotion or maybe a trade if anyone is interested. I keep waiting for the switch to flip on him, because he was a wunderkind when he first came up...but I'm really losing hope now. I actually think that his problems are largely psychological but I don't know where that leaves us either...hypnotism?

I agree that Wallner, at 28, is probably gone forever from the Twins' lineup...sad but true. Yet, we'll always have the memories of those bombs he hit into the plaza in right!  

[David HK]

Catching up with the replay- wow, Zebby looked like the Zebby we wanted him to be! 

And omg, I nearly wet myself-- haven't seen much of Kreider, but watching him rounding 3rd- has he always run like Monty Python's twit of the year contest? 😂😆🤣

 

[ashbury]

8 hours ago, Twins_Fan_For_Life said:

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

This belongs in the Fun With Numbers thread.