MILWAUKEE – The shutout streak was over, but the winning streak was very much alive. Zebby Matthews appeared to have righted himself after a tricky second inning. The right-hander, making his 2025 Major League debut, struck out the first two batters of the third, and it looked like he was on his way to continuing Minnesota’s run of quality starts.
A one-run deficit has proved little problem for the Twins over the past two weeks, and there was no reason to think this one would be any different.
Twenty minutes later, Matthews’ day was done and the Twins were facing a hole they would not dig out of. Three straight walks followed by two singles proved decisive as Minnesota’s 13-game winning streak came to an end with a 5-2 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field.
The winning streak was the longest in the Major Leagues since 2023 and the Twins’ second longest since the franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961. Also coming to an end was a 34-inning shutout streak that was the longest in Minnesota history.
It took a lot for the streak to come to an end. Even after the third-inning rally, the Twins were in the game until the end, with Jackson Chourio’s home run robbery of Royce Lewis finally allowing Milwaukee to breathe a bit.
“An amazing run over the last two weeks,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “I had to tell the guys that after the game.
“There's a lot of work to be done, and I told them we're just kind of scratching the surface as far as what we're capable of this year. That was just a great run of baseball, one of the best two-week spans of baseball I've ever been a part of in my life, and we want to get it going again tomorrow and start a new one.”
Still, the game turned most emphatically in a five-batter span in the third. Matthews managed a nine-pitch strikeout of Brice Turang then fanned Chourio on six pitches. But he fell behind William Contreras, 2-0, before inducing a pair of foul balls on fastballs. Contreras refused to chase back-to-back offspeed pitches out of the zone, and the Brewers had a runner.
Matthews appeared to be squeezed on a 3-1 cutter to Christian Yelich, and it was two on, two out. His second pitch to Rhys Hoskins was also close enough that it could have been a called strike, but instead it was ball two in a four-pitch walk. The bases were loaded and Matthews was in trouble.
Isaac Collins lined a first-pitch, middle-middle fastball for two runs, and Sal Frelick got a 3-1 fastball over the plate for another single, and it was 4-0 Milwaukee.
“Just kind of got away from me there,” said Matthews. “Walk to Contreras, then walking Yelich and Hoskins, trying to make a pitch to get out of it. They were able to hit two singles there, but it’s tough to get away with three walks and then the singles in the same inning. Just got to be better there.”
By the end of the third, Matthews had thrown 43 pitches in that inning alone, and 71 in the game (42 for strikes). Baldelli decided he’d had enough and turned to the bullpen. The Twins kept scraping away, and they brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth, but they never led as the streak ended.
“The team continued to battle there,” Matthews said. “Royce put some good swings on the ball. Obviously, Chourio made an unbelievable play there at the wall. To be a swing away from tying it there, it shows the resilience of the team. I’ve just got to be better on my part there.”