Twins 5, White Sox 1: Zebby Matthews Stops the Bleeding, Twins Avoid Sweep

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Zebby Matthews: 8 1/3 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K (103 Pitches, 67 Strikes, 65%)
Home Runs: Luke Keaschall (9)
Bottom 3 WPA: Matthews (0.27), Josh Bell (0.16), Trevor Larnach (0.13)
Win Probability Chart (Via BaseballSavant):

It's been strange watching this Twins team run out of gas, even while looking pretty interesting for next year and beyond. Luke Keaschall, Trevor Larnach, Kody Clemens and Brooks Lee have all looked pretty good, despite the offense going in the tank in the second half. Add in that Kaelen Culpepper and Walker Jenkins have impressed offensively in their limited action thus far, with Vahn Lackey and Marek Houston on the way. You can see the makings of a decent rotation with better injury luck, and the bullpen, on paper, should be fairly solid. But August has shown that assembling talent isn't everything. The Twins have scored when they don't pitch well and have pitched well when they can't score. Today, they bucked that trend, as Zebby Matthews looked great.

Matthews stayed out of the heart of the zone for the most part, and his misses were competitive. As he showed in his last start when he induced 23 whiffs, Matthews has learned how to miss bats enough to at least keep hitters somewhat honest. White Sox hitters seemed caught between trying to ambush Matthews and trying to work counts. When they swung early in the count, the best Chicago could do was hit medium-deep fly balls, and you could see them press a little as Matthews settled in.

The White Sox have had some starting pitching injuries and today relied on a bullpen game, with Jordan Hicks and his 100-MPH sinker getting the first inning. He started by walking Keaschall. Lee followed with a grounder back to Hicks, who threw to second to retire Keaschall, but Colson Montgomery's relay was terrible, allowing Lee to reach. Clemens then struck out, but Ryan Jeffers walked and Josh Bell singled home Lee. That prompted manager Will Venable to go to lefty Tyler Gilbert to face Larnach, who doubled sharply down the right-field line to score both runners.

The second inning began with a solid single from Culpepper. Jenkins got a pitch to hit and lined it directly to Munetaka Murekami at first base, who stepped on first for the double play, ending the rally before it began.

The third began with a Lee single, but he, too, was erased on a double play. Jeffers doubled off the wall in right-center, and Bell singled him home to extend the lead to four.

Still perfect through four innings, Matthews kept throwing strikes and gave up some hard contact. Jenkins got his first real test in center, as he made a jumping catch at the wall to rob Andrew Benintendi of an extra-base hit.

The sixth began with a dribbler off the bat of Tristan Peters, and though Matthews bobbled it, he recovered in time to retire the speedy outfielder. He would get to 5 2/3 innings perfect before allowing a 3-2 single to .142-hitting Drew Romo. Sam Antonocci followed with an excuse-me double, but Matthews bore down to retire Murakami on a fly out to end the frame.

The sixth and seventh innings have been cursed for the Twins in August, but not only did Matthews escape the sixth, he also pitched an uneventful 1-2-3 seventh with his pitch count at 80. He allowed a Peters single in the eighth but worked around it, pitching to the bottom of the Sox lineup.

Matthews got the nod to start the ninth, too. Despite getting ahead of Antonacci, he eventually allowed a sharp single up the middle to begin the frame. He retired Murakami for the fourth time, but Miguel Vargas laced a single to left to spell the end of the road for the Twins starter. Jeff Hoffman came on to face Benintendi and Brayden Montgomery. He got the former but lost the latter to an RBI single to break up the shutout. The other Montgomery (Colson) then popped out to end the game.

Stuff I'm Tracking:

• Matthews was great today, but do you know who looked great at this time last year? Simeon Woods Richardson. Matthews needs to stack up these performances if he's going to be a long-term fixture in the Twins' rotation. His August has been a good start: five starts, all wins for the team, 31 IP with a 2.90 ERA.
• Jenkins looks really comfortable, despite not getting many good results thus far.
• Are we thinking Culpepper moves to third when Houston arrives? Or is the team concerned with jerking around Lee (note: they shouldn't be)? Culpepper has a great arm, but his instincts at shortstop make me a little nauseous. Then again, with less time to think, maybe Culpepper makes a great third baseman and Lee (theoretically) would make a great second baseman. The question, then, is what to do with Royce Lewis and Kody Clemens, but whatever they decide, it's a lot better than the Jose Miranda-Lee-Keaschall-Ty France thing we had going at points last year. Or anything involving Tristan Gray this year.
• Jeffers looks really slow running to first these days. Despite today's double, he hasn't hit much lately. I wonder if he's nursing some soft-tissue injury that catchers are legally required to play through lest they get labeled as something short of "the ultimate competitor."

What’s Next: The Twins welcome the Detroit Tigers to Target Field with Taj Bradley (9-6, 3.97 ERA) taking on Jackson Jobe (1-1, 3.93 ERA). Jobe is back in the majors after a lengthy absence due to Tommy John surgery and his velocity has been good, averaging 97 MPH on his fastball. Bradley hasn't had many blow-ups outside of a rough appearance in the Field of Dreams game, but hasn't been as dominant as he was in April and July. If the team has any designs on a 2007 Rockies/2024 Tigers/2025 Guardians type run, Bradley will have to pitch his best.

Postgame Interviews: Coming Soon

Bullpen Usage Chart: