TORONTO -- The rebirth of Martin Perez continues.
The Twins’ bats pounced on Toronto starter Marcus Stroman for six early runs, but a dominant Perez didn’t need nearly that much support on Monday night. The 28-year-old southpaw blanked the opposing lineup for the second straight start, allowing two hits in seven shutout innings in the Twins’ 8-0 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
With this performance following eight shutout frames against the Astros last Wednesday, Perez held opponents scoreless in back-to-back starts for the first time since April 2014, when he threw consecutive complete-game shutouts. He improved to 5-0, winning five straight decisions for the first time since 2017, and now has a 1.64 ERA in 33 innings since he joined the starting rotation in mid-April.
“Last year, I was on the [injured list] and I was available to pitch every fifth day, but right now, I've added the cutter to my stuff and made a lot of them, so I'm just going to stay there,” Perez said. “If they don't make any adjustment to that pitch, I'm not going to change how I throw it.”
Alongside his new cutter, Perez heavily featured his changeup, which he threw a season-high 26 times as he set a new career-high with nine strikeouts while allowing only one runner to advance beyond first base. Perez recorded five swings and misses with his changeup and struck out two Blue Jays with the pitch, while the cutter was dominant once again, accounting for five of Perez’s strikeouts.
“He’s missed a good amount of bats this year,” Baldelli said. “I think he’s missed bats and he’s finding new ways to miss bats.”
Like many of the Twins’ starters have done this season when facing an opponent for the second time, Perez changed up his approach in this game. The last time he saw them, at Target Field on April 15, Perez said he tried to throw his fastballs and cutters in. On Monday, he said his focus was on throwing down and away.
Perez said that his changeup was particularly useful for when he saw the Blue Jays’ hitters anticipating his cutter on Monday.
“When I'm trying to go in, soon, I was seeing that they were cheating on the cutter, and I just came back again with my changeup down and away,” Perez said. “I think that was the key tonight."
All of it has worked because Perez has found the ability to command all of his pitches more effectively and attack the zone with them. Since his move to the rotation, Perez has 27 strikeouts and only seven walks in five starts. Jason Castro, who caught Perez for the second time this season on Monday, said that Perez was minimizing “big misses” on spots all night.
“It was just, I think in some ways, with him, a little experimentation, a little toying with some things and playing with some different things to see how they can work for him,” Baldelli said. “And he's starting to figure that out and enjoy using all of his different pitches.”
Perez retired the final nine batters he faced and only ran into trouble in the fourth, when Freddy Galvis hit a leadoff single and Justin Smoak took a one-out walk. Marwin Gonzalez got the Twins out of the inning by snaring a grounder off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., racing to third base and making an off-balance throw across the diamond for a double play.
Twins’ homer spree continues
Though Stroman had not allowed a homer this season entering Monday night, the Twins tagged him for two, beginning when Castro launched his fourth of the season in the second inning as part of a three-RBI game. All of Castro’s homers have come in his last seven starts, and he has said that the Twins’ regular catcher rotation and settling into a more regular schedule have allowed him to stay fresh at the plate.
Eddie Rosario later chased Stroman from the game in the fifth with a solo homer. The long ball was Rosario’s first since April 26 and 12th of the season, giving him sole possession of the American League home run lead once again.
“[Stroman is] going to challenge you in the zone,” Baldelli said. “And you're going to have to do something about it. You are going to have to swing the bat to get him out of the game. We had good at bats. We had good swings. And we approached the way we tried to. That was our goal, to get out there and swing and be ready when he attacked the zone and it worked out."
Jorge Polanco also hit a solo homer in the seventh as part of his three-hit game.
Castro day-to-day with right elbow contusion
Castro was removed from Monday’s game prior to the bottom of the ninth inning with a right elbow contusion that was sustained when he was hit just above the elbow by an 89-mph sinker from Blue Jays right-hander Sam Gaviglio in the eighth inning. He is day-to-day.
Castro said that the elbow started to stiffen up in the top of the ninth and he found it difficult to throw, but he said after the game that he is not concerned about the contusion, and Baldelli said that he expected Castro to be feeling better in a few days.
Third-string catcher and utility man Willians Astudillo is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list on Wednesday, making the Twins’ catching depth less of an issue. If the need were to arise on Tuesday, Baldelli said that first baseman C.J. Cron would be his emergency catcher.