Berríos (9 K's) taking his game to 'high level'

MINNEAPOLIS -- José Berríos was able to stifle former teammate Eddie Rosario for three plate appearances in his fellow Puerto Rican’s homecoming to the Twin Cities. But Rosario’s flair for the dramatic -- all too familiar to those in attendance -- still won out in the end.

Hours after the Twins welcomed Rosario back to Target Field with a tribute video showing his most clutch moments in a Minnesota uniform, the now Indians left fielder added to that highlight reel with a two-run, go-ahead single off Taylor Rogers in the eighth inning and sending Minnesota to a 4-1 loss to Cleveland on Thursday night.

“We know that, one, Eddie kind of likes those moments, but I’m going to bet on Rog every time,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Rog is as good a left-hander out of the bullpen as you’re going to find anywhere in baseball. He has been for a very long time. He just missed with a pitch in the middle of the plate, and Eddie put a good swing on it.”

Though Berríos -- known as “La MaKina,” or “The Machine” -- continued to whirl on with one run and four hits allowed in 6 1/3 innings, the Twins’ bullpen’s season-long struggles with inherited runners continued when Jorge Alcala loaded the bases in the eighth and Rogers allowed all three runners to score on Rosario’s knock and an RBI groundout by Bobby Bradley.

That meant Berríos earned a no-decision for his 26th consecutive start of allowing four or fewer runs, which also featured nine strikeouts, his most since a May 2 start in Kansas City. He’s the only Twins starter to have pitched into the seventh inning since May 28 -- having done so three times in that span.

That sort of consistency is what Berríos and the Twins have sought for years as the right-hander, now only a season and a half from potential free agency, has at times struggled through stamina issues and bouts of inconsistency, usually in the second half.

“One thing José wanted to do this season was take his game to the next level,” Baldelli said. “It’s something he specifically talked to myself and [pitching coach] Wes [Johnson] about this offseason. … We talked about the mental aspect and the consistency aspect of going out there and being the very, very high-level José Berríos every time out and doing it for six months.”

Those 26 consecutive starts have now spanned nearly the entire shortened 2020 season and the first three months of the ‘21 campaign, meaning the true test will come in the months to come.

But for now, the stuff sure looks sharp.

So sharp was Berríos’ stuff in the opener of a four-game set that, much of the time, it appeared as though Cleveland hitters didn’t exactly know what to look for. He drew eight called strikes with his curveball, nine on his sinker and 25 overall, the most he’d generated this season and one shy of the highest mark in his career. Of his nine strikeouts, five came looking -- tied for the most by any Twins pitcher since Statcast was introduced in 2015.

"That tells me I was locating well with my pitches,” Berríos said. “I think I've been hitting a lot of targets with my pitches. When [catcher] Ben [Rortvedt] called the pitches and put down the target, I was hitting them right there.”

“Whatever that’s crossing the plate is not what they thought they were seeing,” Baldelli added. “Normally, there’s only so many guys that I think do that really often. You know, locking guys up with certain pitches, freezing them completely with fastballs, and just keeping them, not that smoke and mirrors-type off-balance, it’s that kind of dominant off-balance that I think he’s showing right now.”

Berríos’ only hiccup came in the second, when he walked Bradley and allowed a single to Harold Ramirez before catcher Austin Hedges muscled a broken-bat RBI knock. Berríos navigated out of trouble in the sixth when he struck Bradley out and the Twins’ defense caught Rosario napping following his steal of second base and tagged him out while he was distracted.

Whether as the focus of next season’s Minnesota rotation or as a possible target for contenders at this year’s Trade Deadline on July 30, Berríos could finally be pitching himself into the echelon he’s hoped to attain for years.

“He’s taking that high, high level of elite consistency to a place where maybe we haven’t seen before,” Baldelli said. “It’s been a lot of fun to watch on our end.”