Chris Paddack has often lamented this season that he wished he could pitch deeper into games and give his team more innings. He found one way to ensure he pitched into the sixth inning on Friday — don’t allow any baserunners.
Paddack’s flirtation with a perfect game came to an end with two outs in the sixth when Christian Koss lined a single to center after Paddack had retired 17 straight batters to begin the game. But the right-hander’s dominant performance led the Twins to victory nonetheless, their sixth straight in a 3-1 win over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night at Target Field.
Paddack, who hadn’t pitched past five innings this season, was sharp and efficient in his 7 1/3-inning effort, leaving to a standing ovation from the Target Field crowd and hugs from his teammates on his way to picking up his first win of the year.
Working with velocity that was up on every pitch from his season average — it was up 1.4 mph on his four-seam fastball — the starter carved through the Giants’ lineup.
But his bid for perfection almost never happened.
A ball that Willy Adames, the second batter of the game, hit out to left was initially ruled a home run before a review showed it to be just foul. Besides that, Paddack faced little trouble from the Giants for most of the night, throwing under 10 pitches in three of his innings.
His only blemish on the day came when San Francisco third baseman Matt Chapman hit a home run in the seventh, stopping Paddack’s shutout attempt. He wound up pitching into the eighth, making way for Louie Varland with a runner on base. Varland quickly got the Twins out of the inning, preserving the lead.
With Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax having thrown on consecutive days heading into Friday, the Twins turned to southpaw Danny Coulombe in the ninth and he picked up his second save of the season.
The Twins had jumped out to a lead immediately, their offense jumpstarted by Byron Buxton, who tripled to lead off the bottom of the first. He quickly came around to score on Trevor Larnach’s RBI knock.
They added another run in the fourth when Carlos Correa’s single brought home Ty France, and scored their third run of the game an inning later when Harrison Bader scored after left fielder Heliot Ramos bobbled a ball hit towards him.
With the win, the Twins now sit just one game under .500 at 19-20 on the season.
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