MILWAUKEE -- Already without Joe Ryan, the Twins received another injury scare in their rotation Friday night.
Zebby Matthews exited Minnesota’s 8-6 win against the Brewers with a right foot blister after warming up for the bottom of the sixth inning. Matthews threw a couple of warmup pitches before a trainer came to the mound, and he ultimately walked off with the trainer before the inning began.
Matthews, who was recalled Friday to take Ryan’s spot in the rotation, finished with six runs (three earned) allowed on seven hits across five innings. He walked two and struck out four on 83 pitches before Tommy Nance took over with Minnesota leading, 8-6.
Ryan was placed on the 15-day injured list on Friday with a mild left glute strain. Matthews had been optioned to Triple-A St. Paul on Aug. 1 before Ryan’s injury quickly opened another opportunity in Minnesota’s rotation.
Matthews said the blister began to tear in the second inning and progressively worsened as his outing continued.
“It ripped open pretty good again,” Matthews said. “Very frustrating to deal with. We keep covering it and it keeps ripping. We’ll see what we can do for the next start.”
Matthews continued pitching through it for three more innings, in part because he didn’t want to leave Minnesota’s bullpen responsible for covering most of the game. But when the blister opened again late in his outing, manager Derek Shelton decided he had seen enough.
“At the end of the fifth, he’s had this blister that rubs,” Shelton said. “It ripped back open, and then watching him go out in between innings, [I] wasn’t really pleased with where it was at and didn’t want it to get worse.”
That was particularly important considering the current state of Minnesota’s rotation.
“He’s a guy, especially with where our pitching’s at right now, he’s a guy we’re going to need,” Shelton said.
Matthews’ final line was also somewhat deceiving. An error helped lead to three unearned runs in Milwaukee’s three-run second inning, and Shelton was encouraged by how Matthews responded rather than letting the defensive miscues snowball.
“We didn’t do him any favors,” Shelton said. “He threw the ball better than his line was. … He was able to battle a lot of jams.”
It continued a hectic week for Matthews, who was optioned shortly after his July 31 start in Seattle.
“It was tough to hear, but I got back to St. Paul on Tuesday and threw a bullpen and found out I was coming back up here,” Matthews said. “Kind of switched the gameplan from Louisville to the Brewers and tried to stay ready.”
Now, the Twins will hope the next adjustment to Matthews’ plans is simply finding a way to keep that blister from opening again.
“The work doesn’t stop,” Matthews said. “You keep at it because when you get called back up here, you need to be ready.”