I don't think it is still possible for Minnesota Twins fans to still doubt the skill of this years team. The Twins just recently won three out of four games against the Houston Astors to improve to 19-10 on the season.

The big take away from this series: pitching. The starting pitchers were feeling themselves this past series, minus Pineda, and the bullpen made work with their little time in the game. Besides the 11-0 loss in game two, this was some of the best pitching I've seen all year, and against a good Astros team.

Game 1

The first game of the series was a pitching duel between Jake Odorizzi and Justin Verlander, but Odorizzi was the one who ended up on top between the two. Verlander pitched phenomenal but gave up a home run to Ehire Adrianza, who was the last Twin starter to hit a home run this season. It took only one mistake from Verlander as the Twins took a 1-0 win in game one.

Odorizzi continues to deal this season improving to 3-2 on the season with a 3.34 ERA. He was able to go seven shutout innings while walking only one and giving up only four hits and striking out seven. Taylor Rogers was able to come in to throw a shutout inning with Blake Parker coming in in the ninth to pick up his sixth save.

Game 2

Not much to talk about in this game as the Twins were blanketed 11-0. Pineda had a good start to the game, but in the fifth inning and sixth innings he fell apart. He finished with five innings pitched and five runs along with nine hits and moves to 2-2 with a 6.21 ERA.The offense was no where to be seen for the Twins as they had only three hits, with the first one coming in the seventh.

Game 3

Here's where the excitement really got going. On the pitching side, we got to see Martin Perez who came into the game 3-0 with a 4.44 ERA, he improved both those categories in this game.

Perez was dealing from start to finish, throwing eight shutout innings and almost went into the ninth before his pitch count rose to 100 and his night was over. He gave up only four hits in the game while striking out seven to move to 4-0 on the year with a 3.41 ERA.

The offense also came to play today and it started with a bomb from Jonathan Schoop in the third. He drilled the ball to left field for a 465 foot home run, which was the longest by a Twin since 2017. Cruz put together a nice 2-hit game with two RBIs and a run to go behind that.

Unfortunately, Trevor Hildenberger wasn't able to hold the shutout in the ninth as he gave up three hits and two runs. Ultimately the Twins were able to take game three 6-2, and made it so they were in a position to take this series from the Astros

Game 4

Jose Berrios was the starter for the series finale and was able to pick up his fourth win of the season behind another strong performance with help from the offense. Berrios had a little rough start to the game giving up a home run in the first inning to Alex Bregman, and giving up back-to-back hits to lead off the third. After he was able to strike out the next batter, get a fly out and strike out the final batter to get out of the pickle and find his groove.

Counting those three outs, he was able to retire 12 straight Astros until his final inning in the seventh. He finished with seven innings, two runs, seven hits and five strikeouts to improve to 4-1 with a 2.91 ERA. Ryne Harper and Trevor May were both able to throw one shutout inning to secure the win.

The bottom of the lineup really came to play today getting seven hits from the bottom four guys. Jorge Polanco and Byron Buxton were able to both hit a triple today and Jason Castro had a double and a home run along with four RBIs. The Twins took the series finale 8-2 behind a strong fourth inning.

Overall

The pitching this series was very solid from both the starters and the bullpen, obviously minus game two, but picking up a 1-0 shutout against Verlander was huge, and winning the series three games to one shows that we don't just beat bad teams. Odorizzi and Perez have shown to be good second and third starters but Gibson and Pineda continue to struggle.

Eddie Rosario continues to struggle at the plate as he went 0-14 this series and his average dropped to .223. Polanco continues to hit the ball and is leading the team with a .336 average, and Nelson Cruz is still hitting well with a .302 average.

What's next?

The Twins get right back into action tomorrow when they travel to face the New York Yankees for the first time this season. The Twins are coming into this series winning six out of their last seven, leading the AL, and having the second highest win percentage in the MLB. Hopefully they can keep their hot streak going during this next series.