It Wasn't Enough to Win Monday Night, But Zebby Matthews Did Something Impressive Against Dodgers

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images© Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

The second pitch Zebby Matthews threw Monday night in Minneapolis was a changeup. It leaped off the bat of Shohei Ohtani, and came down 414 feet away, long gone for a leadoff home run. Matthews missed his spot badly, and Ohtani made him pay with a rising line drive to the plaza beyond right field. That wasn't just a one-off, either. Matthews didn't have command of his changeup (almost) all night. He would throw another change to Freddie Freeman later in the first frame; two to Kyle Tucker and one to Tommy Edman in the second; and two to Ryan Ward in the fifth. All six of those pitches missed the zone, and none of them induced a chase. He succeeded only in falling behind with the pitch, and had to shelve it entirely in the third and fourth innings of his outing.

Yet, Matthews found a way to hang around. He turned to a slightly hybridized version of his slider that had more movement than his cutter but was harder than his usual slider. he spotted his four-seamer well to all quadrants. Against a top-heavy but lethal Dodgers lineup, he got through the first five innings without giving up another run after that Ohtani shot.

In the sixth, not having the change working finally caught up to him. After missing with both a four-seamer and a cutter to Freeman, he left another cutter in the middle of the zone on a 2-0 count. Freeman hammered a game-winning homer, putting the Dodgers up 2-1. All night, as it turned out, only homers by Ohtani, Freeman and Byron Buxton dented the scoreboard.

But Matthews recovered nicely. After the Freeman bomb, he walked Mookie Betts, but the breaking of the tie also broke some tension for him. He and catcher Victor Caratini decided to come back to the changeup, doubling up on it to start Max Muncy's at-bat. Both pitches were called strikes. Muncy lined out. Derek Shelton let Matthews keep working, even though he'd already thrown 97 pitches at that point. Alex Call singled, but Matthews then got a flyout from Edman and struck out catcher Chuckie Robinson to escape the jam.

In the end, Matthews put up six innings of two-run ball, and threw a career-high 108 pitches. More importantly, he found a way to survive without a pitch he usually throws about a quarter of the time against left-handed batters. If he successfully establishes himself as a mid-rotation starter for the Twins this year, bookmark Monday night's start. It was a huge step forward. The Twins lost, but Matthews gave them every chance to beat the two-time defending World Series champions. He did it without a pitch he'll have a better version of most of the time, through some good on-the-mound problem-solving. He rewarded his manager's faith and discovered a new capacity to pitch beyond his previous limits.

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[Andy MacPhail]

Zebby pitched a fine 6 innings game, the BP kept the LAD scoreless for 3 innings. Twins needed their offense to step up but only got 3 hits by Buxton (HR), Lewis & Martin. LAD had their superb defense going, so Twins should hang their heads on this one. Good game Twins, we just came up short.

[Blyleven2011]

Good close game , but losing a 1 run game to the dodgers sucks ...

Zebby wasn't in complete command but manage to pitcha quality start ,  bullpen held strong the rest of the way ,...

Twins players took the field and left their A offense in the dugout  ...

[Whitey333]

Just another Twins loss.  Yes they played well overall even though the offense only managed 3 hits.  But they lost 2-1 to the two time world series winning Dodgers.  Still it's just another loss.  This isn't the NHL where you get points in standing for just showing up.  Good crowd over 35,000.  Gi Twins.  Ryan not Pitching Tuesday due to illness

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

Kudos to Zebby on a strong outing. Now, if we can find a way to put more runners on base and get them to score we will have a winning formula!

[laloesch]

It's too Bad Zebby didn't have command of his change.  He's probably kicking himself right now for that.

[thelanges5]

Zebby teases us with moments like this. Good game and something he can build on.

Well played game on both sides. On paper I thought this was our best chance to win.  Now we have a bullpen game and then Prielipp versus Ohtani. Be nice to get one of the next two and not get swept at home. 
Let’s go Twins! 

[mikelink45]

What hurts is that the Dodger pitchers Klein and Lauer should not have shut down our offense.  With Zebby's good start we should have mustered more than three hits.  That is my disappointment. 

[Mai.K]

By the 6th inning, his fastball was down to 92 mph, but after Freeman's homer and with his pitch count already over 100, he dug deep and was still reaching 95 mph on his fastball. That was really impressive to see.

108 pitches... We may have lost the game, but it was a memorable outing.

[Saxophone Joe]

Good game. Dang, what's it gonna take to get a walk-off win again though? I think our last one was Keaschall's opposite field shot off the Royals last August. 

I know technically we didn't have the winning run up to plate last night, but it seems like we've had at least a dozen opportunities so far this season. 

....Also, wasn't Larnach's bomb off Lauer earlier this season in Toronto enough to keep him in the lineup all game long? 

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

Just another Twins loss.  Yes they played well overall even though the offense only managed 3 hits.  But they lost 2-1 to the two time world series winning Dodgers.  Still it's just another loss.  This isn't the NHL where you get points in standing for just showing up.  Good crowd over 35,000.  Gi Twins.  Ryan not Pitching Tuesday due to illness

How do you get points in the NHL for just showing up?

[Linus]

Zebby got the job done but I think he got a little lucky. He threw 6-8 center cut meatballs and mostly got away with it. It’s the same struggle he’s always had of commanding pitches in the zone. 

[jmlease1]

2 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

How do you get points in the NHL for just showing up?

You get points in the NHL even if you lose if you push the game to OT. They have a very silly points system right now. Almost as bad as their playoff system, which seems designed to ensure that some of the best teams will lose early in the playoffs and worse teams advance...

[terrydactyls]

16 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

You get points in the NHL even if you lose if you push the game to OT. They have a very silly points system right now. Almost as bad as their playoff system, which seems designed to ensure that some of the best teams will lose early in the playoffs and worse teams advance...

Just showing up and skating hard for over 60 minutes are two completely different things.  I agree the playoff system sucks, but that's another topic.

[Jeff K]

Keaschall has played better defensively the past few games.  Of course, that is less than a minimal sample size, but maybe it's a sign that his athleticism is starting to show up in the field.