MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota native Brandon Williamson had never pitched against the team he cheered for as a kid. After Friday night, the Twins might prefer to not face him again any time soon.
Williamson gave up one run over 5 1/3 innings and Eugenio Suárez made big plays with his bat and his glove on Friday as the Reds beat the Twins, 2-1.
Williamson was born in Fairmont, grew up in Trimont and attended Martin County West High School in Sherburn, a triangle of small towns that lie just spitting distance from the Iowa border in south-central Minnesota. The 28-year-old lefty has shared memories of attending Twins games at Target Field as a youth.
Now he was back in town, facing the Twins for the first time in his career. And the desire to root, root, root for the home team was an afterthought for Williamson and the roughly 200 friends and family members who made the two-hour trek north to watch their hometown hero.
“That was so cool. I don't have a team in my home state, so I don't know what that feels like,” said closer and South Carolina native Emilio Pagán. “To pitch for probably his favorite team growing up, in front of that many friends and family, had to be a very surreal feeling.”
Surreal, and yet it was still all Williamson dreamed it would be.
“I really like how the stadium feels on the mound," Williamson said. "Everything's really close. Dugouts are close. Good atmosphere. Everything I thought it was gonna be.”
Of course, having grown up in Minnesota, Williamson is no stranger to pitching in cold weather. And the conditions at Target Field on Friday night were less than favorable -- a gametime temperature of 43 degrees, with a 14 mph northwest wind that dropped the feels-like temperature to 34 degrees by the game’s first pitch.
But the conditions made it a great night to be a fly-ball pitcher like Williamson. The ball wasn’t carrying in the cold air, meaning the six fly balls the Twins hit in the first five innings with an exit velocity above 90 mph died before they could do any damage.
“This ballpark was going to play big tonight,” Reds manager Terry Francona said, referring to the weather.
After cruising through two perfect innings, Williamson got into trouble in the third when he hit Matt Wallner to lead off the inning. The next two batters flied out, but Byron Buxton singled and Austin Martin drew an eight-pitch walk to load the bases.
Williamson dug deep, however, getting ahead of Luke Keaschall 0-2 before throwing a 2-2 cutter that caught the corner of the zone at Keaschall’s knees for strike three.
The temporary loss of command wasn’t a surprise to Williamson, who is still in the process of returning from Tommy John surgery.
“It's a new arm," Williamson said. "I go through stretches where it's like, sometimes I just don't feel it. Then I’ve just gotta keep going, keep fighting, and then all of a sudden, like it did before, it just comes back.”
The Cincinnati offense responded in the fourth by scoring a pair of runs off Twins starter Joe Ryan. Elly De La Cruz doubled and advanced to third as Sal Stewart reached on an error. Stewart stole second and Suárez delivered them both with a double.
Then, following a quiet bottom of the fourth, Williamson’s fifth inning was another high-wire act. It began with three straight walks to load the bases with nobody out. But then Williamson remembered that good things happen when he gives his defense a chance to help him out.
First, Martin hit a drive into right-center that Will Benson ran down in the alley with a tumbling catch. A run scored, but with runners on the corners and one out, Keaschall hit a grounder to third that Suárez gobbled up to start a 5-4-3 double play, keeping the Reds’ 2-1 lead intact.
Williamson left the game after Josh Bell’s one-out single in the sixth, with Connor Phillips coming on to retire the next two and preserve Williamson’s chances at a victory.
That victory came to fruition, as relievers Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan and Pagán each pitched a scoreless inning to close it out.
“He looked like he was having fun pitching,” Francona said of his starter. “I know he didn't like walking the bases loaded, but he looked like he was enjoying himself out there. I like that. Guys are enjoying competing, then we're OK.”