MINNEAPOLIS -- Chris Paddack figured out how to make sure he gets to come out for the sixth inning: Don’t give them any choice at all. If you’re perfect through five innings, you’re going to keep pitching.
Paddack, who had not faced a batter after the fifth all season, took a perfect-game bid into the sixth on Friday night en route to a brilliant 7 1/3-inning start as the Twins stayed hot with a 3-1 win against the Giants at Target Field.
Working with increased velocity and a full four-pitch mix, Paddack turned in a performance that echoed his brilliant 2019 rookie season in San Diego. He went 17 batters without allowing a baserunner before Christian Koss singled with two outs in the sixth.
“That was sick,” said manager Rocco Baldelli, whose club has won six straight games.
Paddack allowed a run on three hits, striking out six against one walk. He had gone exactly five innings in each of his previous five starts despite being mostly effective in those games -- a fact that weighed on him.
“Going out there for the eighth is why we train,” said Paddack. “It’s why we push ourselves hard in the weight room.”
The veteran was aggressive and efficient from the start, throwing 20 first-pitch strikes to 25 batters. Then as at-bats went along, he was able to expand and get chases -- all six of his strikeouts were swinging. He needed only 83 pitches to get 22 outs in the second-longest start by a Twins pitcher this year.
“When you can get ahead and when you can get early contact, that’s how you have good outings,” said catcher Ryan Jeffers. “He was getting ahead of guys and then putting them away when he had two strikes or getting them to put the ball in play early. That’s the recipe to any starting pitcher having success.”
Paddack leaned heavily on his fastball, throwing it on nearly 60% of those 83 pitches. And understandably so, as he averaged 95.0 mph on the pitch, more than a full tick up from his season average of 93.6.
“I don’t think 60% fastballs was the game plan,” Paddack said. “It was just attack. And then obviously getting some quick outs there in the first couple innings, us scoring early, I wanted to stay on the attack because you look at [Giants starter Jordan] Hicks, he was also doing the same thing. It was a fun little game there, a fun little battle.”
The righty got a major break early. The second batter of the game, Willy Adames, hit a 1-2 pitch deep down the left-field line, and it was initially called a home run. But the call was overturned on replay, as the ball hooked just outside of the foul pole. Two pitches later, Adames swung at a changeup out of the zone for Paddack’s second strikeout.
Paddack struck out the side in order in the third, using three different pitches to get the three outs. He got LaMonte Wade Jr. chasing another changeup well out of the strike zone, blew a fastball past Patrick Bailey at 96.6 mph -- his third-fastest pitch of 2025 -- and induced a swinging strike on a slider from Koss.
But it was really all about the fastball. The added zip on the pitch encouraged him and Jeffers to lean on it even more than usual, and the results were exceptional.
"He’s got a good fastball,” said Koss. “He threw a hard [slider] that played with his slow curveball. I think we had a lot of early weak contact that kind of let him settle in a little bit. You tip your hat when a guy has a day like that."
The Twins improved to 19-20, the closest they’ve been to .500 since they were 0-1 after Opening Day. Minnesota has won seven straight home games.