Locked On Twins POSTCAST: Twins Score 13 Runs, Zebby Matthews Earns First Career Victory!

zebie Matthews makes his MLB debut as the twins beat the Royals for the second night in row we're breaking it all down on the locked on twins [Music] postcast you are locked on twins postcast part of locked on Minnesota on the locked on podcast Network your team every day okay back in the lab back at it another Minnesota Twins postcast episode right here in the locked on Sports Minnesota Network your team every day you got myself Luke Inman at lukor spin that's the man CJ bomgardner twins expert over at Zone coverage MN he's on X give him a follow at bomb cj3 I'm just letting you know right now man I'm gonna say the name zebie Matthews at least 30 times tonight because that's got to be one of the best names in baseball I'm just warning you right now I'm already at two yeah go for it okay all right fair enough all right plenty uh to get into but first quick reminder tonight's episode brought To Us by prize piix the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to prize.com lockon MLB use code all lowercase lock on MLB for first deposit match up to $100 okay game two vers KC still trying to chip away at Cleveland here it was zebie Matthews making his MLB debut on the mound one of the top pitching prospects left here in the Minnesota Twins farm system needed some run support for the kid though and they delivered bats got popping again second night in a row 15 total team hits on the night 13 runs scored total team effort more than enough for zebi he went five strong no walks five k two earned runs Twins win this one 13-3 they win game two vers KC division lead still three and a half Cleveland won once again first the Cubs Two To One give me your biggest takeaways kind of your eight topics then we'll do a deep dive on zebb's day a little bit more next yeah well outside from zebie I mean the big story of the game is just the bats got going they got three runs in the first inning and yeah there was an error that kind of led to that but really the twins put the ball in play and they hit the ball really hard and they just kept doing that all night long it didn't matter uh uh which pitcher that they threw whether it was Lugo whether it was any of the other Bullpen arms that the Royals threw out and I thought the twins missed an opportunity yesterday to have an offensive output like this to chase that starter early and make the Royals really have to chip away at their Bullpen they did that tonight and really just sets them up for you know game three this series because not only because of this High offensive output are the twins able to chip away at the Royals bullpen but now Griffin Jacks and Jawan Don have been able to sit for a few days now and should be ready to go not just for tomorrow's game against the Royals but you got a four game set against Texas coming up so just huge that you've been able to keep enough of a lead the last two days where your high leverage Bullpen arm arms can rest up for when they're needed yeah really good point there great breakdown all right let's dive into the a topic a little bit more zebie Matthews making his long awaited MLB debut pretty Rock Solid man five innings five hits zero walks five k 77 pitches enough to get his first career Victory so let's hear it uh how impressed were you I guess how encouraged are you now that he could be kind of a a new Cog in this machine now when it comes to this starting rotation or is that still kind of way too much to put on a rookie after just one start well I yeah I mean there that's going to go without saying is you can't get too high or too low on pitching prospects as we've learned with Simon Woods Richardson David Festa even guys like bayy obber Joe Ryan like there's some EB and flows you got to take some good with some bad so you know whatever I'm saying this right away so that way now I can say I was really impressed you set the you set the bar low you did well yes yep yeah I I'm getting all that as a precursor that way now I can just say all this without having to repeat myself zebie Matthews I'd say I give him a solid B B+ out there you know he only pitched five innings but his pitch count in St Paul he never really had thrown much past I I think really 85 pitches so you're not really going to have him do that in his first MLB start especially when the twins rotation is as injured as they are where it's uh maybe going to be best to save him especially when your offense is doing as good as they are you can throw some low leverage Bullpen arms out there but overall the big thing with zebbie Matthews uh you know he fits the profile like David Festa like bayy obber late round twins draft picks right-handers from nowhere colleges that are not known for baseball they're tall and they got some good arm action and they end up getting into the Twin system and within a year they bump up about two to three miles up on their fastball and that's the same thing with zebie Matthews he threw you know maybe 93 94 on his fast ball getting out of college and then in the minors he topped it out at 97 so for him to be able to do that's been huge he's got I think four other pitches to develop at some point now whether that gets trimmed down as his career goes on or whether he keeps that big Arsenal the point is he's got a fast ball that can move and uh trying to work on that cutter that slider or a couple of the pitches that kind of stick out as his other secondaries but the big thing with with him he throws for 97 with the fast ball but he also has good command where Festa we talked about with him he struggles a little bit with that command he try you know gota something he's got to develop as his career goes on not zebie Matthews that guy is around the strike zone and not just around the strike zone and like they put the in play creates a lot a lot of swinging misses and that's what's really enticing if he ends up getting another shot with the twins throughout the season yeah great breakdown there so you're going to have three rookies in the mix now obviously how it looks exactly we won't know but SWR Festa and and zebie and and you just really pumped us up on zebie now okay I'm I'm jacked up now about zebb's potential here's my question if you're building a team from scratch let's just say who's the guy of those three you're picking first to build around and and also who's got the who's got the highest upside I guess maybe that's two different answers I don't know yeah I mean I think right now it's Simon Woods Richardson just for the fact that you've seen him do it more in the big leag big S yeah his ceiling is you know not as high maybe as a zebbie Matthews with the 97 mph fastball but the fact that siming Woods Richardson has been able to consistently go out and not just pitch five innings but we've sawed the last couple starts he's been able to go six seven you just see him kind of take that next step so if you're starting a rotation and you got to pick one of those rookies to to jam into a spot it definitely would be assuming what's Richardson now uh obviously zebie Matthews it's hard to tell because I mean he's just developed so fast you don't really know what his ceiling quite is yet Festa coming into the season was the twin's best pitching Prospect uh you know so relatively speaking I think he's probably the guy you would consider the one with the most cealing but zebie Matthews remember he started the year in high a Cedar Rapids got called up to double a quickly then end up getting to AAA and now thanks to some injuries has just found himself in a spot to be pitching in the big league so zebie Matthews does have a nice little ceiling to you I'm going to say could develop into an ace but could develop into a nice two three you know rotation arm for this twins team so where does Louis varland fit into this whole equation too by the way any idea what maybe like the blueprint or game plan is with him and you know where he fits I guess in this rotation as well yeah I mean I know people are always going to say well Louis varlin was in the bullpen last year just just move him into the bullpen full time be done with it but as the twins have learned there's a lot of injuries that come with that starting rotation and you need depth because outside of zebie Matthews I don't know who the twins go to besides Louis Varin so you know whether Louis Varin comes up and takes the spot that Matthews has in the rotation right now or whether the way zebie pitched today he earned another opportunity uh I mean he still has a piece in this rotation he still has a home and at the very least uh you know if you feel like it's just not going to happen throughout the next month well then you call him up in the last couple weeks of the season and you stretch him out to be a bullpen arm and then he's ready for a playoff run uh the other obviously kind of a topic or or big component I should say to this whole thing is run support getting run support for these guys not always a strong suit for this lineup though the last two games though they've been popping off like you kind of kind of teased at the top 21 runs I think the past two nights now 13 runs tonight alone seven off Lugo who's arguably you know top three top five pitcher at worst in the AL this year 25 hits in two games who's been the biggest Catalyst to to this kind of recent success at the plate I mean Royce Lewis has had a couple good games Matt walner had a really nice game I think the fact of really that I mean Jose Miranda was a home run away from the cycle today yeah so I mean it's really been kind of a key effort because you don't have uh Carlos kareah right now and and Byron buckton day today and we all know Royce Lewis has his injury issues throughout the season so the fact that it's different guys were coming up and I mean gez can't believe in forgetting this name Christian Vasquez a home run today that guy's all of a sudden crushing the ball I think I heard he has an Ops of over a thousand since like June or something like that stop it not not my Christian Vasquez no way what two RBI tonight one for three one home run yeah man he's been killing it he's been doing so well and I think it just goes to show that you know again it's it's up and down but the when this twins offense is on it's not just one player it's everybody contributing Max Kepler at a three-run home run today uh I mean really it's just one through nine who've been playing good baseball the last couple days and it's just big because again run support is huge gives Ebbie Matthews we're talking about how great zebie Matthews pitched and he did Pitch great don't get me wrong not perfect but really good and Simeon Woods Richardson pitched great on Saturday night and we're done talking about him because the twins ended up losing that ball game so run support is huge and for that to in your first MLB start to get all of that run support very very nice yeah very nice but but again with the Run support jeckeln High though right kind of been the theme this year I guess and and and I mean for one it's been injuries sure I get that but but then when you do get a lot of injuries just when you think ah man no no buckon tonight no Korea still obviously here we go again they put up a big crooked number like they did tonight but but where's the consistency though I guess that's the million-dollar question right right and and a lot of it comes from hitting with runners in scoring position so true the twins did such a good job with that today and yesterday and in the last couple games of the Cleveland series especially that ninth inning I mean that's that's where runners in scoring position is going to haunt you because if the twins you know the last couple games in the Cleveland series were awful with runners in scoring position now the last two days they're good and some of that's you know just the twins being in consistent on offense and we've seen that and and having guys injured plays a part in that the other thing is it is just baseball too baseball is a is a cruel game I think on the postgame show on Bal uh Justin morno and Roy SMY called it a stupid game uh in that way and I think Tim lader agreed and those guys are pretty good baseball players so it can be a dumb annoying frustrating game and some days yeah you come up and you score 13 runs because you can drive everybody in and some days you can get 10 Runners on base and not bring a single one of them home and that's just kind of the es and flows of a regular baseball season yeah well said there all right Rocko report time so game two vers Kansas City the Rocko report it says what I think Rocco again did a nice job uh managing the bullpen and just kind of letting some of those lower leverage guys go and eat up those Innings you didn't see Alcala Sans Don Jax pitch and that's pretty standard especially with the way the Twins were uh I would have liked just on a personal level I don't hold this against Rocco but on a personal level I would have really liked to see zebie Matthews go out and try that sixth inning have a big lead you know let the rookie go there is a case to be made and it talked about the pitch count but there's also a case to be made of you know he he had a good start a good opening debut gave up a home run gave up a couple hits but at the end of the day he had a really nice big league debut why not let him leave with that instead of leaving him a little bit too long and kind of have it end on a little bit of a sour note let him have this and build on it and then kind of let him earn the multiple Innings and I think that's probably what's going through Rocko's head because we saw it with David Festa and we saw it with Simon Woods Richardson also this year yeah yeah makes sense both ways you kind of get it and and again you're right kind of broke it down well you're right you just can't you you knew Rocco as much as we wanted to see it as fans you knew Rocco was just not going to push his luck not with him in his first start uh plenty more deep di from this one plus we got our nerdy stat of the day that's all coming up right after this quick reminder tonight's episode brought to you by eBay Motors passion Drive patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive and eBay Motors they got everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to the ultimate Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights they literally they got it all and whether you're into speed power or style they got you covered 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you'll always find exactly what you're looking for and with eBay's guaranteed fit your part guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back with all the parts you need at the prices you want easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win keep your your ride or die live at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay's guaranteed fit only available to us customers okay weekly bid on the show The Athletic just came out with their weekly Power Rankings take a guess where your Minnesota Twins are at this week well I'm going to guess based on the fact that they ended up splitting with Cleveland o I'm going to say that they're like ninth I'm going to go ninth they are nine all right big drop big drop actually from six though 6 to 9 boom nice uh Kansas City right behind him at 10 Cleveland at five uh you got Yankees and Orioles one and two and also you got Astros right behind KC at 11 too so does that all sound kind of you know about right does that feel about right six to n kind of a big drop I felt like for splitting with Cleveland last week not sure exactly what happened there yeah I wonder if it's just how the series ended and the fact that the twins lost the final two games so whenever you're making those like it it just kind of the recency bias yeah plays a little bit of a hand also the fact that the twins did lose a series to the Cubs and Joe Ryan is out so if you're like it depends if you're focusing on the results you could look at it that way if you're somebody who's looking at like big picture the fact that Joe Ryan got hurt maybe knocks them down a peg of like overall yeah you know just the quality of their starting rotation goes down so I can see why at the end of the day the twins are still a top 10 team and you know the team that's right behind him in the Kansas City Royals and that power rankings and in the standings got a big series W and that's that's important as well I'm going to ask you the same question I asked sweet Lou last night do you feel better or do you feel worse than you did after the Cleveland series because on one hand they they did do some really nice things in that four game series on the other hand you gain literally zero ground on them right not to mention you know the reality of all those injuries that took place you know when they reported them all Friday morning I think it was really hit home it felt like when they lost those last two after beating Cleveland the first two games didn't it yeah I mean it it just left I don't I don't know it almost felt like a tie you know a way because they did tie they did split the series but it's like yeah you don't feel bad about it you don't feel necessarily great about it either I and again recency bias played into a factor for me I did feel a little more like ah like you just had a chance to step on their throats a little bit you you had a chance to not only gain ground but if you would have swept up which I know is hard in a Four game series with any well Cleveland swept Minnesota right earlier in the year right exactly so I mean it's in play and you could have left in first place but you you didn't lose ground now at the end of the day you're still you know the the the glass half full is you didn't lose ground you're right there with them Cleveland's still scuffling and you still have another month plus of the season to go but on the flip side is still three and a half games back it's not insurmountable but it's still not you know it's going to take some time to chip away at and you're starting to run out of games there's you know 40ish games left to go in the season yeah there's not a ton of time and now Cleveland won the season series which means they own the tiebreaker over the twins because there's no tiebreaker games anymore uh so the team with that best head-to-head record gets the tiebreaker which is what Cleveland now has also the twins have the tiebreaker over the Royals now so that's another good thing but overall yeah I think just I I felt like I could have I just wanted a little bit more out of that series uh well said agreed as well with you a lot of different ways to look at it it was just a very Jaelin high performance in series as well very high for a few games very low for a few games as well trying to do some quick math here to see how many games they got left 67 and 52 so that's 119 119 games played so that's 43 games left if I'm not mistaken so quick mat there uh I think I know the answer to this question I think I know who you're gonna say but I'm gonna ask it anyways who's more important to this team these last 43 games Joe Ryan or Carlos kareah I mean that's if just talking about the stretch run I think you'd probably ah man that's a good question because I mean obviously Carlos K is just a better overall player he's a better bat he he do like he's important so I'm not trying to take anything away but you know just the fact of that's an experienced big league pitcher I know over a stretch run and you're relying on three rookies now or Louis varland coming in which again none of them themselves are are a bad option but when you're relying on all of them to be productive it's putting a lot of pressure on bayy obber and paabo Lopez to be perfect almost in the way the Twins were a couple years ago with sunny gray and Joe Ryan when everybody else got hurt behind them so that's what and you know Carlos kareah is one of one but Willie Castro has done a nice job in a shortstop not great but has done good enough and at some point you'll get Brook Lee back and that adds to some infield depth where there's not a ton of starting pitching depth you know proven Big League starting pitching depth behind Joe Ryan so I feel like for that stretch run and if the postseason begin jyan is important because he's just a big league caliber starting pitcher yeah no I don't think there's a wrong answer there either way I I thought maybe you were gonna go Carlos K because for me I guess I want Carlos K I want my captain he's the leader there's more than just the physical stuff and what he brings to the field it's an emotional game to the human ele I want my captain I want my leader back and and that doesn't mean I don't want Joe Ryan back as well and I probably means I'm putting too much stock into zebie Matthews first career start what we've seen from David Festa SWR relying on him continuing to do that some more and more but just from what I've seen knowing you also got your top two in Pablo and Bailey over I think I'd rather have Carlos cor but it is very close that's why I asked um that guy does have ice in his veins that's true he does we all know that uh nerdy stat of the daytime you got some sort of crazy Stat or fun you know analytic twins related yeah so we talked about again zebie Matthews and the fact that he's just a dude that attacks the strike zone uh coming into today and it only got better uh his Minor League strikeout to walk ratio you ready for this 114 career strikeouts in the minor leagues seven walks wow and he had no walks today in five strikeouts so it's if you combine majors and minors 119 strikeouts to seven walks dude I think we might have something here with this guy that that almost it's not quite but that almost reminds me of the Joe M High School stat where started all four years freshman to senior year Four Seasons only struck out three times not on that level but I'm just saying like that kind of reminds me that that is very impressive is my point so that's a fun crazy stat right there I absolutely love it um don't go anywhere we got a preview game three vers the Royals that's all coming up right after this quick reminder tonight's episode also brought To Us by prize picks prize picks America's number one fantasy sports app with more than three million members to date and for me and my money it's by far the easiest and most exciting way to get in on all the action while you watch your favorite sports and you watch your favorite players all you got to do so simple you pick more or you pick Less on two or more player stats and you watch the winnings roll in baseball season obviously in full swing so whether it's strikeouts RBI home runs you name it they got it take your pick on more or less and add them to your price picks entry today plus they now offer Apple pay for quick and easy deposits into your account all seon long download the price picks app today use code and this is all lowercase locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100 okay game three vers KC tomorrow going for the sweep I got to imagine just mentally maybe even emotionally this team is just probably running on some fumes a little bit just after that four game you know slugfest versus Cleveland I'm sure took a lot out of them but what's tomorrow gota look like to get this sweep yeah I mean it's GNA be bayy oer getting another good startup and that's the thing bayy yber I think has like a 28 2.8 erra against every team except the Kansas City Royals who've like gotten him for like 20 runs and two starts this season so there's a chance that he could exercise some demons a little bit here tomorrow and put the twins in a good spot you know that being said it's fascinating how you could look at it do you look at it if you're Rocko and say hey we got house money we got a four game series on the road against Texas do we try and just cut our losses in this series or like basically we already won two out of three let's just go to Texas and try and win there or is it like no division game royals are right behind us we have a chance to really just push them back for the time being and we're going to go for the kill it'll be fast to see kind of what the what the strategy is there but overall I think it's Cole Reagan pitching tomorrow for uh for the Royals who again has been another nice pitcher for them and we'll just kind of see if the twins just have found a really good strategy against Kansas City it's going to be really fascinating to see how this thing turns out but I think it's all going to start with bayy obber and if he can prove that the Royals uh had a fluky first couple starts against him or if they really do have something on him yeah and I think sweet Lou told us last night Bobby Wht Jr Home and Away splits are pretty insane like at home he's like a Hall of Famer on the road he's still good on the road don't get me wrong but like it's it's a massive drop off so I'd just be curious to see bayy Ober who has got crushed by the Royals um you know to your point as you mention I would be curious to see Bobby wit's numbers against bayy over specifically both at home and away it's just be curious to see that how daunting or you know how tough is this schedule coming up for the twins now I mean let's just pull up let's just pull up the rest of the month here after KC seven in a row on the road Rangers Padres then you got Cardinals Braves Blue Jays all at home so those nine games in a row at home that's kind of nice but how daunting just on paper is this schedule they got you know obviously very little room for error here being three and a half back from Cleveland how tough is this schedule yeah I mean it's it's daunting it really is and I think the twins have done a good job so far I mean you lost the Series against the Cubs but you did sweep the white socks at the beginning of the month we talked about that being important and then uh they split with Cleveland and now won a series against Kansas City so so far they are holding their own throughout kind of this tough stretch but yeah I mean it there's no rest for for this team they have four in Texas and then three against the Padre's they don't have an off day for another eight days and we already talked about how their Bullpen is kind of running on fumes a little bit or has been uh in recent days so it's going to be a big stretch for them and really we're going to know a lot about where the twins are at the twins are still three and a half games back or less of Cleveland by the beginning of September there's a really good shot for them to do some stuff but again the things could flip and they could end up you know falling behind Kansas City which is why these two games are are so important for this team so massive and how many left versus Cleveland is it four or is it only three four in Cleveland three Royals in Kansas City both those next month wow okay uh what else is going on around the league that we should be I don't know keeping tabs on like what's your favorite non- twins storyline or or division race or a player to watch whatever it may be what's going on one thing just in baseball broadly uh it's just fascinated me uh about Blake Snell and how he didn't get traded and had not been good and basically he kind of admitted everybody like hey I've just been hurt and maybe that's true because in the last month he's been one of the best pitchers in baseball threw a no hitter a couple starts ago had a shut out out uh I believe or or some just really good start uh his last time on the mound that's been fascinating to watch uh just as a player but it's that AL wildcard race behind Kansas City all of a sudden Boston's starting to creep up on the Royals and that'll be fascinating to see uh how that plays out for that final wild card spot always fun talking twins with you man you are an Elite baseball mine Twins win their second in a row zebie Matthews get to know that name his first career victory tonight 13 more runs scored bats are redot lead still three and a half games in the division game three tomorrow first Kansas City bayy over on the mount first pitch it's an early one 12:10 pm. in the backyard at Target Field huge shout out to all the everydays out there that always make us your first listen rest assured we're going to be back each and every game right here breaking it all down make sure you go check out all of CJ's work by the way on X at bomb cj3 plus all the work he's always ripping up over at Zone cover.com as well haven't asked you in a while anything new as of late we can go check out you've been working on that's twins related up there over at Zone coverage mn.com well I got something coming out uh pretty soon here and it was just it's breaking down zebie Matthews uh first Big League start so putting the finishing touches on that that's coming out shortly love it can't wait to go check that out again that's up over at Zone coverage mn.com sounds like in the next few days go like this video subscribe to the channel so close to 8,000 subscribers that's always much much appreciated all right that'll do it for us we got to get out of here CJ bumgardner Luke Inman onx lukor spin we'll see you next time but until then signing out