MINNEAPOLIS -- On days like this, it’s very easy to see what Zebby Matthews could be. When Matthews is spotting fastballs at 97 miles per hour at the top of the strike zone, and sliders diving off the bottom outside corner, you wonder how anyone ever hits him.
The right-hander was at his very best in the Twins’ 5-4, 13-inning win against the Yankees on Wednesday, striking out eight against two walks over six two-hit innings as Minnesota snapped a three-game losing streak. Matthews averaged 95.8 on his four-seam fastball, threw six pitches for strikes, and got 14 whiffs against a dangerous, lefty-heavy lineup.
It was a virtuoso performance, the kind you expect from front of the rotation starters. The kind that some good Major League pitchers never produce.
He still doesn’t do it every time, but games like this from Matthews show the immense promise in the third-year righty. It was Matthews’ fourth start with a game score of at least 70 this year, tied with Taj Bradley for the most on the Twins despite his having made only 22 starts this season.
When Matthews is good, he’s as good as just about anyone.
“Yeah, you don’t go 5-0 in a month like he did in the month of August and pitch as well as he did against a good lineup [without great ability],” said manager Derek Shelton. “One of the things that we’ve talked about with Zebby is finding weapons to handle left-handed [hitters]. Today you get six left-handers in there, and then the right-handers you get in there are really talented hitters. He keeps getting better, and I think that’s really important.”
Matthews looked strong from the very beginning, dodging the first-inning troubles that sometimes vex him. He struck out Aaron Judge on a filthy slider to end the first, then got Spencer Jones swinging at a curveball in the second. He also registered two swinging strikeouts on his fastball, and all eight K’s were of the swinging variety.
It wasn’t one pitch, it was all of them.
“I’d say it’s up there for sure [with any start this year], just based on how everything kind of felt,” Matthews said. “Majority of the pitches felt really good today. I was able to keep them off balance. I thought [catcher Ryan Jeffers] did a great job mixing the pitch calls, especially with two strikes. Keeping them off balance with the slider and curveball and showing just enough fastballs to keep them honest.”
By any objective measure, Matthews has a disproportionate number of top-flight starts this year. Going by game score, or filtering by innings and runs, however you measure it, his best stacks up with anyone’s.
The next step, the step that will allow him to be cemented into the Twins’ starting rotation and potentially allow him to become a frontline starter, is to do it more often. Or at a minimum, to reduce the damage on the bad days.
“It feels good to know that it’s there,” he said. “To know that I’ve kind of proven that I can do that. But doing it on a consistent level is that next step. Whether that’s just a preparation thing week to week, or just a mindset thing when I get out there, we’ll always work on that and try and make the adjustments necessary to be able to do that more consistently.”