MINNEAPOLIS — Zebby Matthews threw five crisp innings to win his major league debut for the Minnesota Twins, who hit Seth Lugo hard to hand the All-Star right-hander his worst start of the season and beat the Kansas City Royals 13-3 on Tuesday night.
Matthews (1-0) allowed two runs on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts, the latest and most meaningful feat for the 24-year-old right-hander who started the season in Class A. His first strikeout? None other than All-Star Bobby Witt Jr.
“The first strikeout definitely helped calm the nerves,” Matthews said.
Matt Wallner (three runs, two hits) and Jose Miranda (three hits, two RBIs) led the barrage against Lugo (13-7), and Max Kepler (three-run) and Kyle Farmer (two-run) hit homers off the bullpen. Christian Vázquez also homered for the Twins, who had eight of their 15 hits for extra bases in a rousing show of support for the rookie.
“You can go out there and you can attack the zone, just throw your best stuff, try to get guys out,” Matthews said. “It definitely helps a lot.”
Minnesota kept pace with AL Central leader Cleveland, still trailing by 3½ games. Kansas City fell six games back. The Twins (67-52) and Royals (65-55) control the second and third wild-card spots.
The first four batters reached against Lugo, the major league wins leader who endured by far the shortest of his 25 starts this year. Already trailing 5-2, he gave up three hits and a walk to start the fifth before being pulled. Lugo had logged at least six innings in all but four of his turns until this.
Lugo was charged with nine hits, a career-high-tying eight runs, two walks with four strikeouts. One run was unearned due to a throwing error on third baseman Maikel Garcia that put Miranda on and gave the Twins a fourth consecutive batter to reach base to start their first inning.
“This is a great lineup we have. Everybody puts in a great at-bat,” Vázquez said.
Wallner started the game with a leaping catch against the left field wall to steal a home run from Michael Massey, and Matthews didn’t need much help after that.
The eighth-round 2022 draft pick out of Western Carolina induced a steady stream of routine groundballs and showed off his stellar control, dodging a solo home run by M.J. Melendez in the second and an RBI double by Massey in the fifth. In 102 combined innings over four levels this season, Matthews has just seven walks and 119 strikeouts.
“He’s got pretty good stuff. I think he’s going to be a pretty good pitcher in the big leagues,” said Royals catcher Salvador Perez, who hit his 22nd homer in the sixth.
The Twins just might wind up keeping Matthews in their rookie-laden rotation, with Joe Ryan and Chris Paddack sidelined.
“It’s definitely special, but you don’t quit working just because you made it here,” Matthews said. “There’s a lot of stuff to keep doing, keep improving on, so get back to work.”
The Twins have won 18 of their last 20 games against the Royals at Target Field, a stretch of dominance during which they’ve outscored them 123-56. The Twins are 7-2 against the Royals overall this year.
“They’re good,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “They have a deep team. They have guys who can do a lot of different things.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins CF Byron Buxton was held out of the lineup with a discomfort in his right hip that prompted his early removal from the game on Monday, but an MRI test came back clean.
UP NEXT
Royals: LHP Cole Ragans (9-7, 3.27 ERA) will pitch on Wednesday afternoon. The opening day starter is sixth in MLB in strikeouts.
Twins: RHP Louie Varland (0-4, 6.46 ERA) was on track to start the final game of the series. He pitched 4 2/3 innings on Friday in the second half of a doubleheader sweep of Cleveland as the 27th player.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
