MIAMI -- Simeon Woods Richardson is feeling good right now. After tossing five innings of scoreless ball and fanning six in his last outing vs. Seattle, the Texas native gave up just one run in five innings against Miami on Wednesday night at loanDepot park.
Minnesota’s 2-1 win marked the second straight win for Woods Richardson and halted the Twins' three-game skid.
Brock Stewart, Louis Varland and Danny Coulombe took the ball in the sixth and seventh innings, then Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran worked the final two frames, with Duran picking up his 13th save.
The Twins were beneficiaries of stellar defense and some serendipity that preserved their advantage. A would-be RBI single from Kyle Stowers in the sixth inning was taken off the board because it hit off second-base umpire Emil Jimenez before rolling into center field. Then in the seventh, left fielder Harrison Bader -- hat flying to the ground behind him as he streaked inward -- uncorked a 94 mph rocket of a throw that nabbed Connor Norby at the plate after Xavier Edwards singled.
Things appear to be on the up for Woods Richardson, 4-4. He had a 3.92 ERA in June, alongside a .195 batting average against -- his best month this season.
Woods Richardson's consistency in the Twins’ rotation will be all the more valuable with the recent loss of Bailey Ober to the injured list. Minnesota added Ober to the 15-day IL on Wednesday (retroactive to Sunday) with a left hip impingement.
“A big part of that decision comes down to talking with Bailey,” manager Rocco Baldelli said pregame Wednesday, “and a lot of that is gonna be what he’s feeling and how he’s interpreting how it’s affecting him out on the mound. Obviously, it’s something that he’s been pitching with to some extent, but something that I think at this point he believes is now affecting him too much, and something he shouldn’t be pitching with.
“All that said, let’s hope that this propels him, gets him to a good spot. Hopefully [we’ll] get him healthy and at some point, cut him loose again. Then we hopefully get the good version of Bailey, the really great pitcher that we’ve had here for a long time.”
Ober, a 6-foot-9 right-hander who’s spent his entire five-year career with Minnesota, is 4-6 this season (17 starts) with a 5.28 ERA.
But Baldelli likes what he’s seen from Woods Richardson lately and will count on his arm to help sustain Minnesota’s pitching platoon.
“Sim threw the ball extremely well,” Baldelli said postgame. “Mixed well, stuff was good, kept his stuff good for the entire five innings of work. … Sim not only did his job, he did an awesome job and gave us exactly what we wanted.
“He’s attacked good in the zone early in counts. ... [He’s] put the hitters on the defensive a little bit by throwing quality strikes early in the count, making them swing. … If you keep pumping strikes and challenging guys in the zone, and change speeds like he’s able to do, Sim gives himself a good opportunity. But it all starts with getting ahead, it all starts with attacking them with different pitches and quality pitches in the zone.”
For Woods Richardson, his routine body of work is proving successful.
“I just take it day by day,” Woods Richardson said. “I’m trying to repeat the same thing.
“I know it sounds vanilla,” he smiled, “but I’m just trying to repeat every day. This game is about consistency on and off the field. So just trying to stay the same person, stay the same consistent guy on routine.”
If Woods Richardson’s routine elicits more starts like his last two, he’ll have an even better month in July.