Minneapolis – For the first time in what felt like ages, the stars aligned for the Minnesota Twins in their Tuesday night victory. Their starting pitcher, bats, and bullpen all operated at peak performance as they beat the N.L. Central leading Chicago Cubs in an 8-1 blowout.
Simeon Woods Richardson led the way and kept in the groove with the efficient starts he’s had dating back to June 15 on his home turf in Houston. On Tuesday night, he threw five scoreless innings and got out of quick jams in the second and third thanks to great defense behind him and trusting his own stuff against Seiya Suzuki, MLB’s RBI leader.
“Just attacking the strike zone, honestly,” Woods Richardson said of his success against the Cubs. “Get early soft contact, induce contact early. We have a really good defense behind us, turned some double plays, which kind of helped. Try to be as efficient as possible. They’re a really good team. The way you try to navigate that is attack the strike zone.”
Woods Richardson consistently attacked the strike zone, getting 40 of his 61 pitches to land there despite allowing three walks. It’s a testament to how his May reset in St. Paul has turned things around for him and the Twins to help stabilize a rotation that lost three starters to injury in a month.
Rocco Baldelli turned to the bullpen after five innings with the Twins holding onto a 2-0 lead. Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers attacked Cubs starter Shota Imanaga early in the first with back-to-back leadoff doubles. Jeffers came around to score on a Royce Lewis sac fly to make it 2-0.
The Twins left the game impressed with the results they had against a pitcher with seven pitches in his arsenal.
“In general in this game, putting up first-inning runs is huge,” said Jeffers. “It takes a little weight off your shoulders, takes a little weight off the pitching staff. But I thought we put a lot of good swings on the ball. We hit a lot of balls hard. We were under a couple balls, but we know that’s his game.”
“It was big,” echoed Buxton. “All-Star pitcher. Knows where to put the ball. Knows where he wants to put the ball. To be able to jump on him early is big. He pitched very well throughout the rest of the game and finally got him out of the game, and got to the bullpen. Putting quality at-bats together led to that big inning.”
That big inning came in the eighth, but not before the Twins looked like they encountered late-inning trouble for the second game in a row.
Griffin Jax entered in the top half of the eighth for the Twins. Like his last outing on Sunday, he allowed the first two batters to reach. However, he got his first out against Suzuki.
Suzuki chased a 0-2 sweeper away, then did the same to Cubs phenom Pete Crow-Armstrong, this time throwing the ball inside. Finally, Jax got Inver Grove Heights native Michael Busch to fly out to right field to get himself out of the jam.
“It was great,” said Twins catcher Christian Vázquez. “It’s so good that we can throw it, and everybody knows that it’s coming… one of the best sliders in the game.”
Jax stifled Chicago’s chance at a rally, giving the Twins the jolt to have a big inning. In the bottom half of the eighth, Jeffers crushed a two-run home run to start things off. Willi Castro went back-to-back with him, and Lewis added an RBI single. Harrison Bader also hit his fourth home run in five days.
“It was great, I said it was a lot of fun to have that inning,” said Lewis. “We still had it either way, but it was just nice to see them get in a position player and kind of give us the game there. That's always beneficial for our staff and players to see that, and it's nice to get wins on the board for sure."
If the Twins had a big inning earlier, Woods Richardson would have gone deeper in the game. But despite the quick hook, he still has shown the results the Twins have wanted to see from him since his return from St. Paul.
“If he keeps pitching like that, he's certainly going to get plenty of opportunity to keep going,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “I think carrying out his routine very well and consistently throughout the week, preparing for his outings in the right way, then executing when the outings start. He's doing a nice job with it right now, and I think he's feeling good about his routine.”
“I think he’s got more success that way,” Vázquez said. “He doesn’t get a lot of chase away from the zone. It’s more up and down. So, I think that’s why he’s getting all the results in a good way that he’s looking for.”
Joey Wentz, Minnesota’s eighth man in the bullpen, also earned his flowers. He’s only pitched in five games for the Twins, all blowout losses. He allowed the 200th home run of Justin Turner’s career, but it was a nice change of pace from how he’s been used so far in his Twins tenure.
Woods Richardson only pitched five scoreless innings, but it paved the way for the Twins to be on the other side of a blowout.
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