MINNEAPOLIS _ The slow breaking ball _ as slow as 72 miles per hour _ was Jake Odorizzi's salvation Tuesday night.
The Twins right-hander was unable to harness much else. He couldn't find the outside corner of the plate with his fastball. His other breaking pitches were unreliable. But he could spot that get-me-over curve, and he went to it again and again just to get strike one. He even threw one to George Springer in the fourth inning with the count 0-1.
Odorizzi held the defending World Series champions to one run over the first innings, fighting for every out in a game in which both pitchers needed GPS to find home plate.
Houston left-hander Dallas Keuchel's command might have been worse, which enabled the Twins to escape with a 4-1 victory at Target Field. The Twins now can win the three-game series if they can prevail in Wednesday series finale.
Odorizzi and Keuchel combined to throw 109 outpitches over the first two innings of the game at Target Field _ 63 in the second inning alone. Each had to wiggle out of jams, with Odorizzi doing slightly better than Keuchel.
The Twins beat Keuchel on May 2 of last year in their only meeting, and jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against him Tuesday. Brian Dozier was safe, after a replay review, when he led off the inning by beating out a slow bouncer to third. Joe Mauer followed with a walk. Eduardo Escobar, batting cleanup against the left-handed Keuchel, drove in one run with a sacrifice fly.
Robbie Grossman followed with a line drive that struck third base umpire Chad Fairchild in foul territory. Fairchild waved off any attention, and Grossman drilled the next pitch to left-center for a RBI double and a 2-0 Twins lead.
Odorizzi, meanwhile, played with fire. He walked the leadoff batter in each of the first three innings, and went to three-ball counts five times over the same time frame.
The leadoff walk to Josh Reddick in the second came back to bite Odorizzi, as Jake Marisnick drove Reddick in with a single to left. The rest was Odorizzi tap dancing out of trouble. He stranded two in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth despite his troubles throwing strikes.
But Keuchel, the 2015 Cy Young winner, was a little worse. He gave up a leadoff single to Mitch Garver in the second then Byron Buxton reached on a slow roller to second. Dozier and Mauer each drew walks, with Mauer's free pass forcing in Garver to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.
Keuchel was removed after throwing 101 pitches over four innings, the second consecutive outing he's failed to pitch at least five innings against the Twins.
Maybe the curveball helped Odorizzi find some sort of rhythm. After throwing 65 pitches through three innings, Odorizzi needed only 10 to get through the fourth and 13 through the fifth.
With one out in the sixth, Odorizzi started off Marwin Gonzalez with a 69-mph bender that just missed the plate, but came back with a second one that was called a strike before he got Gonzalez to line out. Brian McCann took a curve for strike one and eventually fanned on a fastball that got the crowd roaring.
In six innings, Odorizzi gave up one run on five hits and five walks with four strikeouts. He combined with Keuchel for nine walks in a game that flouted everything the league is trying to do to speed up games.
