WEST SACRAMENTO — The Twins’ rotation has been among the best in the majors this season, but it’s about to be tested in a major way. Ace Pablo López was diagnosed with a Grade 2 teres major strain on Wednesday, an injury which will keep him out for two to three months and test the Twins’ starting pitching depth.
That means the Twins are going to need the young arms in their rotation to step up and on Wednesday, Zebby Matthews turned in another solid performance in the Twins’ 6-1 victory over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park. Matthews, who joined the rotation in place of Simeon Woods Richardson last month, threw five innings on Wednesday, giving up just one run on four hits.
Though he dealt with traffic all night he was able to work his way through it, limiting the struggling Athletics (23-40) in their hitter-friendly minor league ballpark in his fourth start at the major-league level this season.
“Definitely feeling better each start,” Matthews said. “Confidence is growing. Definitely want to keep that going. There’s still a lot of stuff to continue to work on. Each outing you kind of learn more about yourself.”
He pitched with a lead from the outset as Ryan Jeffers, the team’s designated hitter on Wednesday, homered off opener Justin Sterner in the first inning. The Twins (34-27) tacked on another two runs in the fifth inning on Harrison Bader’s sixth home run of the season, which extended their lead to 3-0 at the time.
After the A’s scored their one run off Matthews in the bottom of the fifth, the Twins added on late, putting three more runs on the board in the final two innings of the game.
“We did get some big moments and big swings. RJ and Bader get us going with some good swings, but we also had guys draw a walk. We had guys hit some balls pretty good,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’re doing it in different ways, but I’m really pleased with the types of at-bats we’ve had.”
And they did it without shortstop Carlos Correa who was scratched before the game with back tightness. Correa, who described slipping at the plate and his back compensating to stabilize him through the motion, is likely to get Thursday’s series finale off.
“It’s just discomfort in my middle back and I don’t want to make it worse where I miss months of the season (for) two games,” Correa said.
But even without Correa, the Twins had no problem taking care of the Athletics for the third straight night. The Twins have outscored the Athletics, who have now lost nine straight games and 20 of their past 21, 26-8 in the series.
The Athletics couldn’t do much against Matthews and did even less offensively off the Twins’ bullpen in the final four innings of Wednesday’s game. That group — Louie Varland, Griffin Jax, Brock Stewart and Jhoan Duran — recorded 10 of their 12 outs via strikeout to help the Twins secure the win.
“Each guy just simply did his job,” Baldelli said.
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