Minneapolis – Mother Nature ruined the Minnesota Twins’ plans for their bullpen Monday night against the Houston Astros. Still, the Twins pulled off a 6-3 victory over Houston, even if it took four hours and 35 minutes to complete the game.
The one-hour and 57-minute rain delay shortened what would have been a long relief outing for Simeon Woods Richardson. He made his first relief appearance of the year after allowing 38 runs over 30 ⅓ innings across his previous seven starts.
Fortunately, his one inning of work put a zero up on the board, after getting in a jam with a lead-off bunt from Brice Matthews, and walked former teammate Christian Vázquez with one out. To get out of the jam, Woods Richardson got Jeremy Peña on a lineout to Tristan Gray at third, then struck out Isaac Paredes on his splitter to end the inning.
“I think you’ve just got to keep executing, keep executing pitches, doing a better job,” Woods Richardson said. “I was behind in a couple of counts, but I did a better job mechanically than I wanted to feel. To end with a zero is all you can ask for.”
Woods Richardson would have gone another inning, but the lightning struck with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, and no Major League team sends a pitcher back to the mound in a 40-minute-plus rain delay. Despite not pitching deeper in the game, the outing was the start of a step in the right direction for Woods Richardson.
“He did a good job in the inning he was in, but we get the rain delay,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton. “Any time you get over an hour, an hour-plus, you can’t pitch him, you can’t throw a guy back out there.”
As the rain delay dragged on for over an hour with the Twins up 3-0, the team had to find a way to keep things loose before they knew what time they’d get back on the field. Minnesota had the 3-0 lead courtesy of two Josh Bell home runs. He hit his first home run since April 9 and had his first multi-home run game since September 8 of last year.
Since Bell was the hero of the game to that point, the guys thought they’d have fun rewatching video highlights of him and Byron Buxton from their days as prospects.
“They have like a video of like 10 minutes for all of us,” said Bell. “It was unreal watching Buxton at 18 on the mound and stuff like that. It was definitely fun, telling stories and bringing back memories.”
Bell had no home runs over his previous 31 games, and his strikeout rate was high over that stretch, sitting at 22.8% over 128 plate appearances. With exit velocities at 112.3 MPH on the first home run and 104 MPH on the second, it was a great indication that things are finally clicking back in place for Minnesota’s designated hitter.
“I had a rough stretch there with the punchies,” he said. “That’s not really part of my game, the multi-strikeouts. But once I got out of that, things started feeling a little bit better. started squaring up the ball a little bit more. Hopefully the homers come in bunches, and I can look back after this month and be proud.”
But the Twins wouldn’t have been in the position for the win through the first four innings if it weren’t for their rookie Kendry Rojas. It was Rojas’s first MLB start, and with a few long relief outings out of the pen, he didn’t feel anxious about it. But that didn’t stop the Astros from putting the pressure on with the first three batters reaching in the game.
Peña was hit by a pitch, Paredes had a single, and fellow Cuban Yordan Alvarez drew a walk. But then Christian Walker hit a 90.3 MPH slider that was up and in for a pop-up to Luke Keaschall at second, and Zach Dezenzo followed by hitting another slider inside for a double play to end the inning.
The Astros hitters would go 1-for-10 against him the rest of his outing, and with Bell’s home runs, it kept the Twins in position for a win and a save for Woods Richardson in case the game were called early.
“I felt good and supported by teammates,” Rojas said through pitching coach Luis Ramirez, who translated on his behalf. “They made the plays that we needed, and we got out of the inning. It feels really good.”
“He’s special,” said Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, who left the game with a left wrist sprain. “Kid’s got really good stuff. Super efficient today, like [he] worked himself into trouble early, but super efficient. So props to him for kind of settling in there. I think hopefully we can build some volume there and let him go a little longer.”
Even after Justin Topa allowed three runs in the top of the seventh, the Twins bullpen held on to the lead, which had grown from 3-0 to 6-0, thanks to a three-run sixth inning with Josh Bell getting his fourth RBI of the night. And rewatching those old prospect videos of himself and Buxton helped keep not only his swing but his mindset loose, leading to his best night yet in a Twins uniform.
“Obviously, the most important thing is putting Ws up on the board,” Bell said. “So, when Buxton goes down, I’m trying to carry some weight there, slug a little bit, help the bullpen out a little bit, put some runs on the board. Definitely means a lot.”
