Nerves of steel: Duran keeps thriving in high leverage

CHICAGO -- Jhoan Duran owns the hardest pitch thrown in the American League this season. He’s the only pitcher to have ever thrown an offspeed pitch over 100 mph, likely ever. And as he unleashes that, it’s rare to see a hint of emotion cross the face of the seemingly unflappable 24-year-old rookie, who has always looked the part of the impenetrable relief ace who isn’t fazed by even the biggest situations.

It turns out there’s a secret to that.

"I'm always nervous, so since I'm always nervous, when I come out there and it's a high-pressure situation, I just don't think about it, because I'm nervous already, so it doesn't make any difference,” Duran said with a laugh through interpreter Elvis Martinez.

The important thing, though, is that there’s rarely any reason for the Twins to share that nervousness when they turn the most important part of any close game over to Duran, because he’s just been that good. On Sunday afternoon, he once again escaped a critical seventh-inning jam to help the Twins surge late to a 5-1 win over the White Sox that put Minnesota in position to reclaim a share of first place in the American League Central.

“You don't see a guy that's 24 as composed as he is that can command the strikes and that can pitch in with the fastball and the split and can do whatever he wants with the baseball,” Carlos Correa said. “I mean, he's on top of the game right now. He's the elite of the elite out there. When you talk about the best bullpen arms in the big leagues, you talk about Edwin Díaz, you talk about Jhoan Duran.”

Before the Twins acquired Jorge López and Michael Fulmer as bullpen reinforcements at the Aug. 2 Trade Deadline, they often had to use Duran to finish games almost out of necessity, without many other options in those situations. But now, with a deeper leverage stable in the mix, the Twins have been freed up to use Duran in the situations with the highest likelihood of swinging the game -- and Sunday’s seventh inning certainly qualified.

Though the Twins entered the frame with a 2-0 lead, the White Sox mounted a one-out rally against Fulmer on a double by Gavin Sheets, a single by Yasmani Grandal and an RBI double by AJ Pollock that left runners on second and third with one out in what had become a 2-1 game.

In the bullpen, Duran warmed up much more quickly than usual, entering in the middle of an inning for just the fourth time this season and just the second time since the end of May, as the Twins have often preferred to give him clean innings.

With Leury Garcia up, Correa made sure Duran knew exactly what to do in case of a squeeze bunt -- throw home if it’s in front of the plate, throw to first if not. On the second pitch, Garcia did drop it down -- and Duran methodically approached it and made a perfect flip home. After that, he touched 101.9 mph as he blew away No. 9 hitter Romy Gonzalez on four pitches -- and he still came out again for a 1-2-3 eighth inning against the top of the order after the Twins had tacked on a pair of insurance runs.

“The game’s going to turn, probably, one way or the other in that spot,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Composure, first, making the play on the bunt -- it’s a lot easier said than done coming into the game and having to execute a play like that. And then just coming up big, going right through the middle of their hitters again. Pretty impressive.”

Many who throw in the triple digits don’t know where the baseball is going. Duran does, as his strike rate ranks 12th among the 433 MLB pitchers who have thrown at least 500 pitches this season.

In the past, a pitcher like Duran might have been relegated to ninth-inning duties, cooped up by the traditional definition of using the best reliever in the bullpen as the closer. But that’s simply not how these Twins operate with the youngster who not only wields fire, but also harnesses it among the best in the sport. They want him in the biggest spots.

And because of that, Duran’s impact in games has quite literally been unmatched in the league, as he leads all qualified relievers in win probability added by a wide margin.

Games like Sunday’s show why that’s the case.