HOUSTON -- Things had been going so well for Chris Paddack.
Over 11 starts since April 12, the Twins right-hander had been one of the American League’s best pitchers. In 64 innings, he pitched to a 2.25 ERA (sixth in the AL in that span) and a 0.95 WHIP (fifth), with batters hitting a mere .197 against him. His average of 2.53 runs of support explained why he had only two wins to show for it.
Paddack wasn’t that pitcher Friday night. Ambushed from the get-go, he surrendered nine runs (eight earned) and 12 hits in four innings as the Twins fell, 10-3, to the Astros in a series opener at Daikin Park.
The Astros took an aggressive approach against Paddack, with 12 of the 24 hitters he faced putting the ball in play on the first or second pitch.
“I knew coming into it that they’re leading the league in putting the ball in play [with] early contact. And I’m a guy that attacks,” said Paddack, who struck out just one and walked only one. “So you pair both of those, it’s going to be early contact, because I’m coming in the zone. They put the ball in play, and they got to me tonight.”
Friday’s start was reminiscent of Paddack’s 2025 debut, in which he allowed the White Sox nine earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. His ERA stood at 24.30, which is how he was able to achieve the rare feat of lowering it in 12 consecutive starts. It stood at 3.53 going into Friday. It’s now back up to 4.30.
That 12-game achievement had happened only twice previously in franchise history since earned runs became an official statistic in 1913, per Elias Sports Bureau. En route to the 2004 American League Cy Young Award, Johan Santana progressively lowered his ERA from 5.61 on June 3 to 3.30 on Aug. 1. And over the course of a dozen starts in 1986, Bert Blyleven went from 5.28 on July 13 to 3.78 on Sept. 8.
Paddack, whose outing started with a single by Jeremy Peña and double by Yanier Diaz, gave himself a chance to escape a first-inning bases-loaded jam by striking out Jake Meyers for the second out. But Cam Smith jumped on a first-pitch fastball for a two-run single up the middle, and Jacob Melton followed with an RBI single to put Paddack in a quick 3-0 hole.
“In my head, I made it personal there,” Paddack said of the battle against Smith. “I was trying to get out of that inning with no runs scored. … It’s one of those balls that kind of found that hole. I think I saw the exit velo was 85, 86 [it was actually 82.7], so you just say, ‘Man.’ ”
Paddack gave up two more runs in the second and three in the third before Jose Altuve led off the fourth with a homer that put the Astros up 9-1. With the Twins having surrendered 16 runs in losses to the Rangers on both Tuesday and Thursday, Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli didn’t call on his bullpen until the fifth.
“We’ve had a week this week where we haven’t gotten a ton of length from the starters. With that, you’re going to have days where you just have to let the guy keep pitching,” Baldelli said. “Chris had no issue with anything. He takes the ball every time. He’s never wanting out of a game. … He probably would have kept going even further if we asked him to, but I don’t think it was worth it at that point. We had some guys that could throw, but we didn’t want to use everyone.”
The Twins had but one real chance to get back in the game against Astros starter Colton Gordon, who went six innings. Minnesota trailed 5-0 when Ryan Jeffers walked to load the bases with two outs in the third. But Carlos Correa grounded out to third as part of an 0-for-4 night that left him 9-for-63 (.143) in 17 regular-season games against his former team.
In losing for the third time in four games this week, the Twins totaled eight hits, including solo home runs by Willi Castro, Royce Lewis and Ty France, whose ninth-inning blast extended his on-base streak to 24 games.
Lewis left the game in the ninth after injuring his left hamstring while running out a single to left field. Baldelli said the third baseman has “a left hamstring strain of some kind” but that he wouldn’t know its severity before Saturday.