MINNEAPOLIS _ The National League wing of the Twins' pitching rotation is having no trouble adjusting to the American League. Playing the Cardinals probably helps smooth the transition.
For the third consecutive game, a longtime National League starter pitched five strong innings for the Twins and walked away in line for an impressive victory, and Rich Hill might have been the most remarkable veteran of the three. The 40-year-old lefthander, his pitching elbow surgically repaired only eight months ago, allowed last year's NL Central champions only a couple of singles and a walk and never allowed a Cardinal to advance past first base in his five shutout innings at Target Field, and the Twins went on to shut out St. Louis 3-0 on Wednesday night.
Not since last June 2 had Hill, at 40 older than every active big leaguer except Fernando Rodney and Albert Pujols, pitched so spotlessly. But he's determined to win a World Series before his long career ends, and he looked in postseason form already during his Twins debut.
"He's worked extraordinary hard to be here. He's been one of the best pitchers in baseball when he's been out there," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of a pitcher first drafted in 1999. "He's made these later-in-his-career adjustments to get to this point, and has just really taken off since."
Thanks to Hill, Kenta Maeda and Homer Bailey, three winter acquisitions who have a combined 440 starts for National League teams (and only 65 now in the AL), the Twins have really taken off in 2020, essential during a season that is nearly 10% over already. Maeda (whose AL debut came Sunday in Chicago) and Bailey each matched Hill's five innings, and while each of them allowed two runs, in both cases they were due to one bad pitch _ two-run homers, each time _ from matching Hill's scoreless start.
Match that kind of pitching with the Twins' relentless offense, and you get a 4-1 start that would leave the Twins as the only one-loss team in the AL Central.
Oh, that offense? Cardinals righthander Daniel Ponce de Leon and the St. Louis relief corps actually did a good job of limiting the Twins on Wednesday. Wearing their throwback powder-blue uniforms for the first time this season, Minnesota managed only three hits over the first six innings, but they were timely enough to produce three runs.
The first came on Nelson Cruz's first-inning double on a 3-2 pitch, a scorching two-out line drive that reached the wall in right-center and scored Luis Arraez from first base. It was the Twins' MLB-leading ninth first-inning run of the season, and Cruz's 11th RBI, also the most in baseball.
Ponce de Leon didn't make another mistake until the fourth inning, but it was a loud one. After getting Eddie Rosario to foul off an inside curveball and a high-and-away fastball, the righthander came inside with another fastball on 0-2. Rosario didn't miss, and the ball glanced off the ribbon scoreboard on the upper deck in right, Rosario first home run of the season.
Ponce de Leon recovered to strike out Miguel Sano for the second out, but then his command deserted him and he hit Jake Cave with a pitch and walked Marwin Gonzalez on a 3-2 curveball. Lefthander Tyler Webb relieved him to face lefty-hitting backup catcher Alex Avila, and had him fooled. But Avila clipped a pitch into short left field for his first RBI as a Twin, and the Twins had a lead for Hill and the Twins' bullpen to protect.
