The Minnesota Twins have enjoyed sterling pitching en route to extending their winning streak to 12 games.
Fresh off back-to-back shutouts, the Twins will look to continue their good fortune on Saturday night when they play the second contest of their three-game road series against the sputtering Milwaukee Brewers.
Joe Ryan scattered two hits and struck out nine in Minnesota’s 3-0 win in the series opener on Friday. The Twins blanked the Baltimore Orioles 4-0 on Thursday.
The Twins also won 12 games in a row last season, but Ryan sees a difference between the streaks.
“It feels great. It’s just the baseball we can play. We’re getting some good results, and it’s true baseball. It’s not flukes. It’s not errors,” Ryan said of the current streak, per the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “I remember a couple of the games last year, there was a bunch of errors. … But it was bad defense. This feels like we’re playing really good baseball, and I think that’s a really good sign for the whole season.”
Three relievers combined to strike out seven to push the Twins’ record to 18-5 in their last 23 games.
“It’s just gorgeous stuff. It’s controlling the at-bats by just dominating the strike zone early in the count,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Joe did a great job of that, as did all the guys that followed him. But that was one thing that I think made Joe’s outing for him, that he was ahead of almost everybody.”
The Twins scored twice in the first inning and once in the second to get off to a fast start and help overcome a growing list of injuries. Minnesota was without stars Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton — who were injured during a collision on Thursday — while Harrison Bader remains sidelined due to a groin injury.
Willi Castro took an early exit after fouling a ball off his right kneecap in the first inning. He was replaced in the second inning with a knee injury.
The Brewers, who have been shut out in three of their past four games, will look to reverse their luck against Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez (3-2, 2.77 ERA).
Lopez allowed four runs on five hits in six innings in his most recent outing, a no-decision in a 7-6, 10-inning win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
Lopez, 29, is 1-1 with a 3.07 ERA in seven career meetings with Milwaukee.
The Brewers will turn to right-hander Tobias Myers (1-0, 3.86), who also received a no-decision in his most recent outing. He permitted two runs on three hits in four innings against the Tampa Bay Rays last Saturday. The Rays won 3-2.
Myers, 26, has yet to face the Twins in his career.
Milwaukee’s William Contreras is 5-for-8 with four runs in his past two games after going 1-for-16 in his previous four.
While his team didn’t give him much reason to smile on the field, Brewers manager Pat Murphy had promising news on injured left-hander Jose Quintana, who was placed on the 15-day injured list with a shoulder impingement. He is eligible to be reinstated on May 26.
“Quintana looks like it’s not going to be that serious, thank God,” Murphy said, per the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “We couldn’t handle another starting-pitcher injury. He’s going to play catch again and just see how he feels. He had the bullpen the other day, and he didn’t throw bad in his bullpen. He just said, ‘Ah, doesn’t feel right.'”
–Field Level Media
