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

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.