Starting with pitching. Lineup depth. Defense. Base running.
Those are four areas the Twins focused on improving in the offseason, and all four were on display in a season-opening three-game sweep of the Royals in Kansas City that included back-to-back shutout wins to start a season for the first time in team history.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights and key takeaways from a 3-0 start that has the Twins sitting alone atop the AL Central after opening weekend.
Starts strong
Starting pitchers Pablo López, Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan combined to allow one run in 16 1/3 innings, impressive early returns from a rotation the Twins dreamed of significantly improving on the season.
López threw 5 1/3 shutout innings Thursday, using excellent raw stuff to overcome shaky fastball command. He averages 95.1 mph on his fastball, up from 93.6 mph for the Marlins last season, and the new “sweeper” breaking ball he learned this spring is already getting swings-and-misses, like his elite changeup. It’s easy to see why López got the Opening Day assignment for his new team.
Gray’s five shutout innings on Saturday were more difficult. He seemed to lack fastball command, relying heavily on off-speed pitches in his first two trips to the Royals’ lineup. Gray issued four walks to just one strikeout and got into jams with multiple runners on base in the second, third and fourth innings, but he circled the mound three times with a lot of defensive help.
Ryan gave up a solo homer to Edward Olivares in the second inning Sunday to snap the pitching staff’s season-opening scoreless streak at 19 2/3 innings but eventually settled into a groove heading into six innings of one-run ball. He allowed just two hits, struck out six and made good on his spring training plans to not rely on his fastball, throwing 20 split-changeups and 16 sweepers.
Now the baton has been passed to Tyler Mahle and Kenta Maeda, the two members of the rotation with health question marks. They begin a three-game series against Luis Arraez and the Marlins in Miami, with López scheduled to face his former teammates on Wednesday.
State of the left bats
Jorge Polanco and Alex Kirilloff were on the injured list, Max Kepler was 0-for-13 in his return to the leadoff spot and Nick Gordon also went hitless in the series, but Trevor Larnach and Joey Gallo took the slack for the Twins’ left-handed hitters in Kansas City.
From battling to make the team in spring training to cleaning up the bat in each of the first three games, the 2018 first-round pick responded by going 5-for-11 (.455) with three walk and many good, emergence of the patient’s plate. His ability to work counts and drive pitches to the opposite field has always been outstanding. Now he just needs to stay healthy.
Gallo was held in the first two games, going 0-for-6 with four strikeouts, but on Sunday the Twins got their first taste of the all-or-nothing slugger’s upside. He narrowly missed hitting the Twins’ first homer of the season in the fourth inning, lining a double off the wall. He didn’t miss a beat after that, lining homers to right field in the sixth and seventh innings.
Gallo also showed his defensive versatility and fielding chops; the two-time Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder played all three games at first base alongside Kirilloff and helped the Twins escape a bases-loaded jam Thursday by starting a rare 3-2-4 double play. His struggles last year were well established, but this is precisely why the Twins made a one-year, $11 million bet on Gallo’s return.
Second-base platoon
In all three games, Gordon was in the lineup at second base against a right-handed starter and was replaced by pinch hitter Kyle Farmer when the Royals brought in a left-handed reliever. Joining a Gordon-Farmer platoon is the most logical way to replace the switch-hitting Polanco.
Gordon, a left-handed bat, is a career .271 hitter with a .752 OPS off righties, compared to a .216 average with a .534 OPS off lefties. Farmer, a right-handed bat, is a career .287 hitter with an .836 OPS versus lefties, compared to a .242 average with a .651 OPS versus righties. And by being aggressive when matchups flip in the middle of the game, manager Rocco Baldelli can also turn Gordon and Farmer into bench weapons.
Not only did Farmer hit for Gordon against a left-handed reliever in all three games — Amir Garrett twice and Ryan Yarbrough once — but Baldelli also used him in spots when the lefty had to stay in the game because with a minimum of three batters. That’s one advantage of making moves in the middle innings, when opposing managers are sometimes least attuned to the odds.
Baldelli hit rookie Royals manager Matt Quatraro, his longtime friend, with a double-whammy on Opening Day. Quatraro brought in Garrett to face back-to-back lefties, Gordon and Gallo, in the sixth inning. Garrett couldn’t be pulled, so Baldelli pinch hit Farmer for Gordon and righty Donovan Solano for Gallo. Farmer walked, Solano lined an RBI single, and the Twins took a 2-0 lead.
Farmer also came off the bench Saturday to deliver an RBI sacrifice fly in a similar situation versus Yarbrough. Expect to see more mid-game action from Baldelli now that he has some quality bats off the bench, which is another benefit of the depth the Twins spent all offseason stockpiling.
The Buxton Show
Of course, Farmer’s aforementioned RBI sacrifice fly on Saturday would have been a flyout if not for Byron Buxton. And many things in this series could have been different for the Twins if not for Buxton going 6-for-13 (.462) with a double, a triple and multiple aggressive base-running plays that led to a run. He had two hits in each of the three games.
But it was his decision to tag up from third base on Farmer’s fly ball to shallow center field that showed the kind of impact Buxton can make even as he returns from knee surgery as the designated hitter. Buxton’s speed made the scoring play possible, but it was his instincts and willingness to take risks that made it possible.
Buxton retreated to third base, likely to fake a tag, but then noticed that Royals center fielder Kyle Isbel made the catch flat-footed, not anticipating the need for a throw. So he took off for home as a surprised Isbel hit the ball into the infield. Buxton scored without throwing out at the plate. He’s not 100 percent, and may never be, but he can still put on the jets when needed.
It took an overturned safe call on a bang-bang play, but Buxton grounded into a double play Sunday for the first time since Aug. 18, 2020. In his double-play-less streak, five other major- league hitters grounded into at least 40 double plays, led by José Abreu with 52. Buxton hit 55 homers between double plays, an all-time MLB record.
Speed of play
As was the case throughout MLB during opening weekend, the Twins and Royals played quickly thanks to the new pitch clock, completing their three games in an average of 2 hours and 28 minutes — 2:32, 2:18 and 2:35.
By comparison, the Twins’ average game was 3 hours and 7 minutes last season, and only one of 30 teams (Tigers, 2:58) averaged under three hours.
Royals designated hitter Franmil Reyes wasn’t happy about the automatic strike called against him on Opening Day, but for the most part it was easy for most to forget that the pitch clock was in place. Most pitches were delivered with five or more seconds left on the clock, and the elimination of a solid half hour of downtime made for a more entertaining product with the same amount of total action.
It’s great and it’s only going to get better because early on the kinks are still being worked out.
(Byron Buxton photo: Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
