MINNEAPOLIS -- There’s the rotation leader that the Twins had been missing.

Throughout José Berríos' difficult start to the 2020 season, he and pitching coach Wes Johnson had a unified message: Wait for the adjustments; they’re coming.

Well, they arrived on Thursday night. Berríos finally found the command to go with his swing-and-miss stuff, and the Brewers were the unlucky team on the receiving end. Berríos held the Milwaukee lineup hitless into the fifth inning and allowed only a single to Eric Sogard and a walk to Keston Hiura over six dominant innings as he turned in his first lights-out start of the season in the Twins’ 7-1 victory at Target Field, securing a series win.

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“He was absolutely at the top of his game in pretty much every way,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “All the way around, it was a tremendous night for him, and we’ve seen this guy many times over. That’s the guy we remember, and it doesn't get any better than what we saw.”

The Twins’ offense was initially quiet against Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff, but it came to life in the middle innings. Catcher Ryan Jeffers, making his Major League debut, knocked an RBI single in his first at-bat and finished with two hits and was also hit by a pitch, while Nelson Cruz crushed a late two-run shot -- his ninth of the year -- and the Twins pulled away with three more runs in the eighth.

Berríos entered the night with 27 hits and 13 walks allowed in 24 1/3 innings. At the end of this 89-pitch start, he had allowed only the one walk and one hit while striking out a season-high nine.

“When I came to the ballpark, I said, 'Today’s the day. I need to do it now. I can’t wait any more time,'” Berríos said. “So, yes, I feel really pumped up, and like I said, I bring my 100 percent for every pitch, so I think that really helped tonight on the mound.”

The right-hander’s movement was still the same, the pitch mix wasn’t markedly different from his previous appearances, and he generated 12 swings and misses in his outing, same as in his last start.

The difference? The Twins’ Opening Day starter had better command and didn’t yield in three-ball counts. He only issued one walk after having given up three or more free passes in each of his last three starts entering Thursday. Before this start, he had issued walks in 13 of 28 plate appearances this season in which he reached a three-ball count. In contrast, Berríos won the battle in three of the four plate appearances that reached three-ball counts on Thursday night.

At one point, he struck out three batters in a row looking at his curveball.

“Up to this point, he had kind of been out of the zone a lot, more walks than usual,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “His breaking ball today was just in the zone way more than we had seen on video. He did a really nice job with his breaking ball. That's why he was good tonight."

Berríos also avoided contact in the heart of the zone, as he allowed only one hard-hit ball (exit velocity of at least 95 mph) all evening, a sharp lineout to left by Christian Yelich that came on the right-hander’s final pitch of the evening.

Johnson had cautioned after Berríos’ last difficult start that the difference in release point between Berríos hitting the inside corner and outside corner was only one-eighth of an inch, and that it would take him time to feel out his new mechanics after he’d moved slightly more toward the third-base side of the rubber this season. Berríos said his curveball, in particular, was working much more effectively on Thursday and he had better command of his fastball.

It’s only one start’s worth of progress, but it’s encouraging all the same.

“How are you pitching ahead and how are you getting ahead?” Baldelli asked. “And how are you attacking each hitter a little bit differently and finding ways to work one pitch off the other pitch? He did everything. He had everything going, and that's what it looks like. That is the José Berríos we talk about all the time. We've seen it a bunch, but that's the one you are certainly looking for. Fantastic effort.”