MINNEAPOLIS _ Lance Lynn, despite not quite conquering his generosity on the mound, joined his Twins rotation-mates with a shutout performance of his own on Monday night.
His was the misfortune, however, of facing a noted Twins-killer.
Justin Verlander, who has recorded more victories against Minnesota than any pitcher over the past decade, flexed that mastery once again at Target Field _ where he was 6-1 with a 2.74 ERA coming in to this season _ and held the Twins scoreless through seven innings in a game the world champion Astros won 2-0.
The former Tigers star struck out nine, held the Twins to just three hits, and walked only one as he lowered his ERA through two starts this season to a measly 1.45. He recorded his 18th career victory against the Twins.
"He's better now than he was a couple years ago," Twins manager Paul Molitor said before the game. "No disrespect intended, but I thought there was a stretch there where he became a little bit more mortal. He's picked it up the last couple of years."
He proved it while enduring temperatures that dropped below freezing by the time he was finished, yet seemed not to notice the polar ice cap weather.
"He seems to have another level when he needs it, and there's not a lot of guys who can do that," Molitor said. "He can hang on to velocity, he can sustain it late in the game. His ability to make pitches, it's impressive. He's one of those guys who has enough weapons, you can't hit them all. [You have to] get in some hitter's counts and hopefully you guess right once in awhile."
The Twins did only a couple of times. Joe Mauer doubled in the first inning, but was stranded there. Verlander then retired 14 of the next 15 hitters before Jason Castro led off the sixth inning with a looping double into right field. When Brian Dozier moved him up to third base with a slow roller for another hit, Verlander simply struck out Mauer with a 96-mph fastball in the dirt, whiffed Miguel Sano with a 97-mph letter-high fastball, and got Eddie Rosario to pop up.
Thing is, Lynn, the Twins' surprise mid-camp free-agent signing, matched Verlander's zeroes until his pitch count rose into triple digits. Lynn, wearing short sleeves in the frigid night air, put a baserunner aboard in every inning, just as he did a week earlier in Pittsburgh. But despite issuing four walks _ giving him 10 for his two-start Twins career _ and three singles, two of them on the infield, Lynn worked his way out of trouble each time, ending four of his five innings with a strikeout.
That gives Lynn eight consecutive shutout innings since his five-run first in Pittsburgh _ though he has no victories to show for it.
Only after Lynn was lifted, having thrown 105 pitches in five frames, could the defending world champions notch a run. Carlos Correa led off the sixth inning with a double into right field off reliever Taylor Rogers, and after Rogers recorded two ground-ball outs, Molitor summoned Trevor Hildenberger to finish the inning. But J.D. Davis slapped a sinking line drive that bounced just in front of Rosario's sliding attempt, and Correa scored as Rosario retrieved the error.
The Astros scored again in the eighth when Correa singled and Marwin Gonzalez doubled him home off Addison Reed. Meanwhile, the Twins squandered a chance in the eighth inning, when they loaded the bases with one out, only to have Eddie Rosario ground into an inning-ending double play on the first pitch thrown by reliever Chris Devenski. The right-hander gave up a one-out double to Eduardo Escobar, and with two out, Ken Giles came on to try for a one-out save.
Giles' second pitch to Byron Buxton was hit deep down the left-field line, but it went just foul. Three pitches later, Buxton grounded out to end the game.
