MINNESOTA 1, HOUSTON 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, April 29.

Batting star:  Ehire Adrianza was 1-for-1 with a home run.

Pitching stars:  Jake Odorizzi struck out seven in seven shutout innings, giving up four hits and a walk.  Taylor Rogers struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  Blake Parker pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit.

Opposition stars:  Justin Verlander struck out seven in six innings, giving up one run on two hits and two walks.  Michael Brantley was 2-for-4.  Carlos Correa was 2-for-4.

The game:  It was an old-fashioned pitchers' duel, except that in the old days both starters would've gone the whole game.  The Astros got a couple of two-out singles in the first but could not score.  The Twins got a two-out double from Jonathan Schoop in the second but did not score.  In the third, Adrianza made sure the Twins scored by hitting a home run to put Minnesota up 1-0.

And the pitchers, on both sides, took it from there.  Houston only got a man into scoring position one more time, in the sixth.  Alex Bregman drew a one-out walk and Brantley followed with a single, but Odorizzi struck out Correa and Yuli Gurriel to end the inning.  The Twins also only had a man in scoring position one more time, when Nelson Cruz had a pinch-hit double leading off the eighth.  He did not score, either.  Correa led off the ninth with a single, but Gurriel hit into a double play and Josh Reddick grounded out to end the game.

WP:  Odorizzi (3-2).  LP:  Verlander (4-1).  S:  Blake Parker (6).

Notes:  Jake Cave started the game in left field, with Eddie Rosario at DH and Cruz on the bench.  Adrianza started at third base, with Marwin Gonzalez moving to first and C. J. Cron on the bench.  Mitch Garver, who has led off a couple of times this season, batted cleanup.  I don't suppose it's exactly rare for a player to bat both leadoff and cleanup, but it is somewhat unusual.

Garver was 0-for-3 and is batting .348.  Jorge Polanco was 0-for-3 with a walk and is batting .327.  Cruz was 1-for-1 and is batting .307.  Rogers has an ERA of 1.98.  Parker has an ERA of 0.96.

I know this isn't exactly brilliant insight, but I feel like the recap wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention how unusual it is for Adrianza to hit a home run off Justin Verlander for the only run of the game.  It was the twelfth career home run for Adrianza in 920 plate appearances.  Not only had Adrianza hit a home run this season, he hadn't had an extra-base hit of any kind this season.  He came into the game with an OPS of .411.  The point is not to be critical of Adrianza.  The point is that it shows, once again, what a great game baseball is, and how you just never know what might happen in any individual game.

It's also noteworthy that the Twins, who are becoming notorious for swinging early in the count, made Verlander throw one hundred pitches in just six innings.  Yes, the strikeouts were part of that, but Odorizzi struck out the same number, pitched one more inning, and still only threw eight-six pitches.

This was Odorizzi's third consecutive good game, and the best of the three.  Over that span, he has pitched 18.1 innings and given up three runs on eighteen hits and just two walks.  He has struck out fifteen.  That kind of pitching would take us a long way this season if he can keep it going.

I don't know why I can't get comfortable with Parker as the closer.  Maybe I got scarred by his Twins debut or something.  He certainly has gotten the job done--he has both an ERA and a WHIP of less than one.  And he was a very effective reliever with the Angels over the last two seasons, so it's not like this just comes out of the blue.  Of course, as long as Rocco is comfortable with him as the closer, it really doesn't matter how I feel anyway.

Yesterday I said that we'd know more about the Twins after their next ten games.  Well, this was just one game, not ten, but it's certainly a hopeful start.  One down, nine to go!

Record:  The Twins are 17-9, first in the American League Central, 2.5 games ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We're still on track for 153-9!