Maeda wins rivalry showdown with Shohei

MINNEAPOLIS -- Though the Twins dealt Nelson Cruz to the Rays shortly before Thursday’s series opener against the Angels, executive VP and chief baseball officer Derek Falvey reaffirmed the club’s belief that it can continue to try to compete next season and beyond.

A healthy and effective Kenta Maeda would be an important part of that, and with each passing start, the Twins’ Opening Day starter continues to look less like the version that struggled for much of 2021 and more like last season’s American League Cy Young Award runner-up.

Once again sporting his new high socks, Maeda turned in a fourth consecutive effective outing with a season-high seven innings in Minnesota’s 3-2 loss to the Angels at Target Field, officially ushering in the post-Cruz era in the Twin Cities.

“It was an emotional day in our clubhouse for a lot of people, and I’m sure we’ll talk more about Nellie as a person and as a player, too, but that’s certainly the case as to what kind of day it was before the game, and then we went out there and played a tight ballgame,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

Though Maeda allowed seven hits, he mostly scattered them and dodged damage throughout his outing, including, most significantly, two strikeouts and a groundout against fellow countryman Shohei Ohtani in a series of highly significant battles to fans of Japanese baseball.

Maeda got Ohtani swinging with the fastball in the first inning before Ohtani rolled over a splitter in the fourth, grounding out into the shift, and struck out the two-way sensation with another splitter in the fifth to cap the pair’s final meeting of the game.

“While I like to enjoy the moment, I also wanted to make sure I retired him every time I faced him,” Maeda said. “I think it was a good battle tonight. It was a reading game for both of us tonight, all throughout. I won that portion of the game and I was able to get him out with a splitter.”

Though Maeda executed well against the Angels’ best hitter, his execution lapsed in one crucial moment against No. 9 hitter Jack Mayfield, who took him deep for a decisive three-run blast in the fifth inning on a 3-2 slider that stayed too far up in the zone.

That big swing erased the two-run lead the Twins had built in the bottom of the fourth, when Miguel Sanó -- wearing Cruz’s baseball pants in a tribute to his mentor -- doubled and stole third before scoring on Willians Astudillo’s RBI double. Gilberto Celestino added an RBI groundout.

Otherwise, Maeda struck out six batters without issuing a walk, which allowed him to stay efficient with his pitch count as he pitched into the seventh inning for the first time this season -- using only 95 pitches -- after having done so four times in last year’s shortened campaign. After holding a 5.56 ERA through 12 starts, he’s posted a much better 2.35 mark in his last four outings since he changed to the high socks.

“That was a really, really nice outing for Kenta,” Baldelli said. “He did all the things he’s been doing. We talked about how well he’s been pitching recently. He’s looked pretty spectacular, and we went out there and -- I know everyone’s talking about the matchup with Ohtani -- but he mixed his pitches well. I think he was really locked in.”

Even though Minnesota’s Trade Deadline sale has officially begun, signaling the change in focus to next year and beyond, Maeda’s stingy outing and continued improvement is an example of the determination the Twins hope to carry forward into the rest of the season -- as Cruz taught them.

There’s still two and a half months to go in the regular season, and though several other players are likely to follow Cruz out the door over the eight remaining days until the July 30 Trade Deadline, that’s still plenty of opportunity for this club to prime itself for another go at things in 2022.

“One of the messages today was that we are going to go out there and focus, continue to work maybe harder than we’ve ever worked,” Baldelli said. “The mental side of the game, too, especially more than anything, and also take all the things that you learned from Nelson and also from the guys that are here right now. ... It’s our job to build out going forward, do things the right way and continue to work and grow.”