MIN 2, MIL 0: Take a Bow, José Berríos

[Lucas Seehafer PT]

José Berríos pitched six no-hit innings with 12 strikeouts before Rocco Baldelli turned Saturday night’s game over to the bullpen. Come read all about it in tonight’s game recap.Box Score

Berríos: 6.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 12 K

Home Runs: Buxton (2)

Top 3 WPA: Berríos .366, Buxton .168, Rogers .111

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

Download attachment: chart.png

 

Everyone has at least one sports moment that is imprinted in their memory.

 

For those who fancy themselves as fans of the Minnesota Twins, these moments usually come in the form of Games. Game 163. Game 6. Game 7.

 

Saturday night, we witnessed another one of those Games, however, this one won’t be remembered for its numerical value. This one will forever be remembered as The José Berríos Game.

 

Berríos was hot from the start, averaging 95.3 mph on his four-seam fastball through the first two innings and touching 96 mph on multiple occasions. For much of last season as well as the later half of the 2019 season, Berríos’ velocity would tend to dip beginning around the fourth inning. That was not an issue Saturday night, however, as his fastball sat 95 all night in addition to a sinker that averaged 94.7 mph, according to Baseball Savant.

 

 

Berríos combined his fastball velocity masterfully with a devastating curveball and occasional changeup to keep the Brewers’ hitters on their heels all night. He exited after 84 pitches and six innings of ace-level pitching, accumulating 12 strikeouts and zero walks, as well as a 50% overall Whiff% and 34.9 WPA, along the way.

 

 

Unfortunately for the Twins, Milwaukee Brewers’ starter Corbin Burnes also brought his A-game. Like his Minnesota counterpart, Burnes was nasty from the opening frame, touching 99 mph with his sinker and 98 with his cutter.

 

Burnes is atypical in the current age of MLB as he has a legitimate five-pitch arsenal, all five of which he can employ to strikeout opposing hitters. The Twins found this out the hard way, as they struck out 11 times and did not register a hit.

 

That is until Byron Buxton came to the plate in the top of the seventh inning.

 

 

Buxton’s second home run of the season broke up Burnes' no-hitter and ended his night. While not as visually impressive as his 456-foot bomb Thursday afternoon, Buxton’s home run to center field in the middle of a no-hitter was perhaps just as impressive.

 

 

The Brewers’ broke up the Twins’ no-hitter when Omar Narváez laced a single off Tyler Duffey in the eighth inning. (Taylor Rogers entered the game in place of Berríos in the seventh inning and struck out the side.) Minnesota added a second run in the eighth inning on a Luis Arráez single that brought in Andrelton Simmons.

 

In all, the Twins struck out 17 Milwaukee batters Saturday night - in recompense for the 17 strikeouts they suffered at the hands of the Brewers on opening night - and did not walk any in what was arguably one of the most dominant nights of pitching in franchise history.

 

The Twins and Brewers will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when Michael Pineda and Adrian Houser face off with the series on the line. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.

 

Postgame With Berríos

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

Download attachment: Bullpen.png

 

Click here to view the article

[cHawk]

Why on earth would Rocco yank Berrios? Let the man get his first career no-hitter!

 

In any case, glad to see the pitching and defense holding strong today. Am a little worried about Colome, he looked shaky.

 

On the flip side, what's with the offense? Yes, Burnes absolutely balled out today but not getting a single hit thru 6?

 

In all seriousness, I don't like what I'm seeing from Sano. If he doesn't clean up his act he should be sent down. Also, are both of our catchers going to be offensive liabilities this year?

[strumdatjaguar]

Listened to the game on Sirius. Uecker is entertaining but called the last pitch from Calome as a strike-out and then realized it was a fly ball out.

[prouster]

Great win. Both starters pitched like freaks of nature. Buxton hit a very tough cutter to the opposite field for a dinger. That's very encouraging to me. A hard fought game between two excellent ball clubs.

[Dman]

Well your starter can't pitch any better than that.  I have been on Berrios's back for  a while but a 12 K game with no hits makes me look like an idiot.  He is not going to pitch like that every time out but if we are getting ace like Berrios for the full season the FO is going to be sorry they didn't work out a spring extension.

 

Both of our catchers have K machines so far.  3 K's today for Jeffers makes him look overmatched at the plate.  Garver hasn't been much better.  Those guys need to make better contact.

 

Buxton comes through again.  Throwing him fat strikes is not a good idea anymore.  I am surprised they don't go low and away more on him early in the count. So far it looks like the same home run or bust basher from last year.  I guess if it is working keep on doing it.

 

Heck of a well pitched game.  Hopefully the bats come around for real this year and stay through the playoffs.

[ashbury]

Both starters put on a master class. Topic: Command. When the umpire gave them the outside strike, they both capitalized.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I’m a bit surprised Berrios didn’t go out for the seventh but have no problem with Rocco being cautious in April. There’s a lot of baseball left to play and Berrios is a key to success this season.

[Lucas Seehafer PT]

 

I’m a bit surprised Berrios didn’t go out for the seventh but have no problem with Rocco being cautious in April. There’s a lot of baseball left to play and Berrios is a key to success this season.

Berríos said in his post-game interview with Dick and Justin that Baldelli decided to pull him after Buxton hit the homer, otherwise they were going to let him to go to 100 pitches if need be. Tough decision, but the right one as you said.

[iowaguychris]

Berrios had a lot of movement on his pitches today - keep that up and hes going to be even more of a must sign for us in a couple years

[mikelink45]

I am confused. If they were going to let him go 100 pitches why did the Buxton home run change the equation. Let him go until there's a hit. I still think it's a great honor for a pitcher to throw a no-hitter

[prouster]

 

On the flip side, what's with the offense? Yes, Burnes absolutely balled out today but not getting a single hit thru 6?

 

96 mph cutters on the black will do that to an offense. Burnes is a legit number 1 pitcher.

[D.C Twins]

Pitchers only have a few days in their career where everything comes together.

 

It is an absolute travesty that he was not given the opportunity to ride or die for the whole game on this night (*unless HE said he was gassed or there was a clear/significant drop off in his velocity/mechanics to suggest problems*)

 

I embrace advanced metrics, but you still need to actually watch the game.

 

He had a PERFECT GAME going through 6 innings with 80 pitches....A perfect game is history.... 6 perfect innings....forgotten in a few weeks.

 

Trust me that despite what he says, La Machina was most certainly paying attention. This, added to what his team feels have been low ball extension offers, will all lead to him betting on himself from here on out and walking in his free agency year... Book it... it's done.

[MMMordabito]

Baldelli is an A.I. His lack of soul will probably present come playoff time again. Can you imagine if he had been the manager for the '88 Dodgers or '91 Twins? Gibson and Morris would have never had a chance.

[AZTwin]

Look at what happened with Snell and the Rays last year. Some of the analytics is a travesty to sports

[wyowib]

Twins lose on opening day in the 9th to a really good team and it's complain, complain, complain, Twins win against same team in the SECOND game of a 162 season and it's; complain, compla..., I've loved this site since it's inception but I remember a few years back there was a "Rookies and Lurkers" thread where the 1st response mentioned the negativity of this site as a reason they probably won't visit often.  I've come to that point; I appreciate all the actual BB reporting and talk but the number of negative micro-managing comments is wearing me thin.  I don't have rainbow glasses and criticism is an important part of life, but seriously, it's baseball, this team is considered one of the top teams by people who aren't Twins fans, enjoy positive moments, and actually trust the "it's a long season" mantra.  

[Aichiman]

 

Baldelli is an A.I. His lack of soul will probably present come playoff time again. Can you imagine if he had been the manager for the '88 Dodgers or '91 Twins? Gibson and Morris would have never had a chance.

I couldn't have said it better.  Our manager is not a leader.  He's got no fire.

 

[cHawk]

I couldn't have said it better. Our manager is not a leader. He's got no fire.

Why do you say this? Because of the lack of offense? 96 mph cutters will shut down any offense.

[Huskertwin]

 

 

He had a PERFECT GAME going through 6 innings with 80 pitches....A perfect game is history.... 6 perfect innings....forgotten in a few weeks.

 

Just for the record, he didn't have a perfect game going as he'd hit Hiura with a pitch to lead off the 5th inning. But it sure was a masterful outing for him.

[prouster]

Why do you say this? Because of the lack of offense? 96 mph cutters will shut down any offense.

U mad?

[Major League Ready]

 

Look at what happened with Snell and the Rays last year. Some of the analytics is a travesty to sports

 

You can stop ranting now because removing Berrios had nothing to do with Analytics, at least not in the same sense as Snell being removed. The science which prompted this move is medical science. In other words, he was removed because of risk of injury. It would have been a different story had they been even a month into the season and he had a handful of 100 pitch starts. 

[prouster]

You all realize the Twins won the game, right?

[Diesel]

If it was a perfect game, Rocco definitely wouldn't have pulled him. Since Berrios wasn’t going to finish the game, since he was already at 80 pitches, I am OK with finding a better matchup against batters, which Taylor Rogers clearly was. Johan Santana had his career ruined by staying in his no hitter too long, don’t want that to happen

[nclahammer]

Wow, in 2021 I'm amazed that that some "fans" are surprised Berrios was done after 84 pitches and 6 innings.   Have you not been watching MLB the past decade?  To quote Sergeant Hulka from the movie Stripes, "Lighten up Francis."  Nice game Jose.

[cHawk]

U mad?

No

[Tom Froemming]

This feels like one of those "the only rule is it has to work" type situations. News flash: It worked.

 

P.S. Get used to this, especially if it keeps working.

[prouster]

No

Cool. Me neither.

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

I missed that part in "Stripes" where Sgt. Hulka said, "Nice game, Jose."

[Brock Beauchamp]

Pitchers only have a few days in their career where everything comes together.

 

It is an absolute travesty that he was not given the opportunity to ride or die for the whole game on this night (*unless HE said he was gassed or there was a clear/significant drop off in his velocity/mechanics to suggest problems*)

 

I embrace advanced metrics, but you still need to actually watch the game.

 

He had a PERFECT GAME going through 6 innings with 80 pitches....A perfect game is history.... 6 perfect innings....forgotten in a few weeks.

 

Trust me that despite what he says, La Machina was most certainly paying attention. This, added to what his team feels have been low ball extension offers, will all lead to him betting on himself from here on out and walking in his free agency year... Book it... it's done.

Berrios had a far more common no hitter going, not a perfect game.

[bighat]

Great effort by Berrios.

 

Overall though, this game was still pretty tough to watch. The Twins struck out 17 times on Friday, 13 times last night. The strikeout is the most common out for the Twins so far this year and it isn't even close. Combine that with Milwaukee's 17 strikeouts last night....frankly, reruns of the "Golden Girls" might be more exciting.

 

You can frame it as a "classic pitcher's duel" if you must, and sure we can get away with that summary today. But this type of strikeout-heavy performance has become all too common in today's MLB. If the Twins strike out 15-20 times again today, even if they win, it's frankly unwatchable baseball. As someone else mentioned, if you wonder why MLB is losing fans, the strikeouts are Exhibit A.

 

Striking out not only removes chances for hits, but it also eliminates those exciting and athletic defensive plays that we come to the ballpark to see. Not sure what MLB can do aside from moving the mound back. Might be time for that discussion.

 

Great job Berrios, wish he'd have gotten the 7th. Here's hoping Buxton stays healthy! Arraez looking great so far at 3B. Duffey looking pretty shaky.

 

I'll take 1-1, here's hoping the Twins win the series today!

[Nine of twelve]

I am totally on board with Baldelli's pitcher management last night. Keep in mind that a manager's job is to get his team to advance as far as possible over the course of the regular season (and the postseason, we hope). Regarding last night, most importantly, it was a 1-run game. The manager has to decide who is more likely to keep the other team down, a fresh set of bullpen arms or a starter who has thrown 84 pitches in his first start of the season. The manager also has to take into account what would be best for the pitcher and the team in the pitcher's future starts. The fact that the starter happened to be no-hitting the opponent was a factor, but it was low on the list of factors to consider.