The Minnesota Twins had plenty of positive pitching storylines from opening weekend. The best was Jose Berrios’ complete game shutout to close the series.
The Minnesota Twins are primed for a great season in 2018. The opening weekend in Baltimore put many of their best attributes on display. Maybe none more than starting pitcher Jose Berrios. We saw hopefully just the beginning of his 2018 growth in his first start of the 2018 season.
Sunday against the Orioles, Berrios pitched a complete game shutout. He threw 107 pitches, allowed three hits, one walk while striking out six batters. The Orioles had a pretty quiet day against Berrios outside of a Chance Sisco double and 9th inning bunt. A bunt that has drawn quite a level of debate since the game ended on Sunday.
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The spotlight still remains on Berrios’ performance and deservedly so. He was able to work several innings quickly. Getting outs early in at-bats to help keep his pitch count down. Even though Berrios didn’t need to strike out a high rate of batters on way to his shutout victory. It was clear that he had the stuff going to produce swing and miss strikeouts. That ability was clearly on display as Berrios struck out Adam Jones swinging to end the game.
Berrios has drawn some attention from national outlets for his performance on Sunday. He gained the honor of American League MVP from Joel Reuter at Bleacher Report. Reuter also mentions the fact that Berrios is a potential breakout candidate for the 2018 season. Even Buster Olney got in on the praise of Jose Berrios pointing out that the young right-hander could be set to break out in 2018.
Jose Berrios is a candidate for a breakout in 2018: https://t.co/RWZmXv76CT
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) April 2, 2018
As mentioned earlier, Berrios wasn’t a strikeout machine yesterday but relied on some quick outs on balls put into play. Jim Sannes from numberFire pointed out that there were only 24 balls that Berrios allowed in play. Only 1 out of those 24 hits qualified as a hard-hit ball. Those types of results will certainly go a long way in limiting baserunners and runs scored against if Berrios can keep it up.
Jose Berrios allowed 24 balls in play yesterday (https://t.co/phrlCcCWTl). One of them was a hard-hit ball. Nine were soft-hit.
— Jim Sannes (@JimSannes) April 2, 2018
Next: Twins look good as they head into Pittsburgh
If you are a Twins fan you have been waiting for Berrios to become the Twins Ace. After Sunday, Jeff Passan appears to be on board for that title after comparing Berrios’ stuff to the late Jose Fernandez. That is very high praise for Berrios! The Twins will hope that their young and emerging pitcher can live up to that level of praise as the season continues.