Make It Official! Twins 3, Astros 2: It’s Christian Vázquez’s World, We’re All Just Living In It – Twins Daily Front Page News

After some captivating baseball in the first two games of the series, the rubber match featured some good pitching, bad baserunning and another multiple hit game for Brooks Lee. And all three runs were driven in by Christian Vázquez, with one of those being the result of a walk-off home run off of Josh Hader.

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson: 6 IP 3 H 2 ER 2 BB 4 K (88 Pitches, 59 Strikes, 67%)
Home Runs: Christian Vázquez (4)
Top 3 WPA: Vázquez (.353), Matt Wallner (.143), Jhoan Durán (.136)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

After a chippy first two games of the series against the red-hot Astros, the Twins turned to Houston native Simeon Woods Richardson as they hoped to win two of three for the fifth series in a row. Woods Richardson has seen middling results lately, with hitters punishing his change-up in particular. Spencer Arrighetti took the ball for Houston, a rookie with a good strikeout rate and not much else.

Woods Richardson looked pretty good, stuff-wise. After an easy first inning, however, the patient Astros laid off numerous chaneg-ups and sliders on the corners that were called balls in the second. After a Jon Singleton single, SWR walked Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick. A sacrifice fly followed for the first run, and then SWR made his only true mistake of the inning, an elevated change-up to Jose Altuve, and that’s been an automatic hit for the second baseman for about 12 years. Jeremy Pena was retired quickly afterward, limiting the damage.

The Twins had trouble stringing together hits against Arrighetti, but had consistent traffic throughout the day. A scary moment occurred when the Houston rookie lost his grip on a fastball and hit Carlos Correa on the hand (because of course it hit his hand). Correa exited the game but X-rays were negative.

In the second, Byron Buxton, who is hitting in the .270’s these days, rolled a single through the right side and then the newly-recalled Matt Wallner worked a ten pitch at-bat that ended in a walk, fouling off some high fastballs we are all used to him swinging through in the past. Christian Vázquez then looped a single over (definitely not his listed 6’0″) Alex Bregman’s head to cut the lead in half.

Vázquez wasn’t done. After a Jose Altuve error (later changed to a base hit) allowed Brooks Lee to reach, Wallner scorched a 117 MPH line drive into the right-center gap to put runners on the corners with no outs. Vázquez grounded to Bregman, who probably could have started a traditional double play as he threw to second to retire Wallner. But Altuve threw home to try to cut down the advancing Lee, who would have been out by several steps had catcher Cesar Salazar held on to the throw, but he instead dropped the ball three separate times as Lee slid in to tie the game. Vazquez then was caught too far off first base for some reason so that two outs were, in fact, recorded on the play.

SWR continued to command the ball well, and got several quick pop outs in the middle innings to extend his outing, generally just by pumping fastball after fastball in good locations. He retired 13 in a row to end his day. He only allowed three hits to one of the hottest offenses in baseball over the past month, albeit one without Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez.

Jose Miranda didn’t start the day following the conclusion of his historic hitting streak, but was called up on to pinch hit for Farmer in the seventh and promptly lined a sharp single to left. He then got a great jump off of reliever Bryan Abreu but had a poor slide and was thrown out stealing, courtesy of a seed from Salazar.

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The Astros led off the top of the eighth with a double from folk hero Joey Loperfido, but even with Altuve, Pena and Bregman coming up, they could not get a hit against Griffin Jax. Altuve was caught looking at a 3-2 fastball and Bregman swung through a beautiful sweeper to end the frame.

The Twins then led off their half with a walk from Kepler, and an infield hit from Buxton. Lee then rolled a ball up the middle that Pena made a great play on, taking it himself to retire Buxton and firing to first to nab Lee for the double play. Manuel Margot then grounded out to end the threat.

After a nice inning from Jhoan Duran, at least stuff-wise, Vázquez led off the bottom of the ninth against all-world closer Josh Hader. Naturally, he drove in his third run of the game with a walk-off bomb into the flower beds in left field; a thrilling end to a great series against a hot opponent.

The Good:
-SWR had a good combination of stuff and command. His fastball reached 95 MPH and he had very few misses over the plate.
-Josh Staumont has pretty pedestrian underlying numbers, but has hit 99 MPH in his last outing, and hit 101 MPH today. I can’t think of any other pitcher with Thoracic Outlet Surgery who has recovered this well. I can’t even think of anyone who lasted more than a couple of years in the league after that surgery.
-Wallner only got two plate appearances, but both were excellent in quality.
-Vázquez has been taking more competitive at-bats lately, and was rewarded for it today.

The Bad:
-Correa may not have broken a bone, but a deep bruise could easily still result in a few days off, or even an IL stint, which is exactly what happened in 2022 when Royce Lewis was first called up. Lee did move over to shortstop in the eighth after Miranda pinch-hit for Farmer.
 

What’s Next: Chris Paddack (5-3, 5.29 ERA) starts the first of a three game set in Chicago opposing Chris Flexen (2-7, 5.08). Chicago, you may have heard, is pretty bad this year. Flexen was once a good number four starter for the Mariners, but has played for several teams since then and hasn’t been the same. Paddack had a difficult last few starts, and was placed on the IL with shoulder fatigue, which may have just been a way to give him a break and limit his innings. Facing a bad offense like the White Sox might be the perfect confidence boost.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart:

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