MINNEAPOLIS _ What a cool rookie prank the Twins played on Devin Smeltzer in his MLB debut Tuesday. They hid their pitcher-crushing offense from him until he was done.
Smeltzer, a phenom left-hander who rose from Class AA to the majors in just eight weeks, made one of the most memorable introductions in Twins' history, shutting out Milwaukee on three hits over six innings. And once he departed to back-slaps and high fives, the Twins battered Milwaukee's bullpen in their now-typical lightning-strike style. In the span of six batters, the Twins turned a scoreless pitcher's duel into a five-run lead and eventually a 5-3 victory over the Brewers to split their two-game border battle in Target Field.
Smeltzer, who was languishing as a reliever in the Dodgers' system until the Twins asked for him in last July's Brian Dozier trade, became only the fourth Twins rookie ever to announce his presence in the major leagues with six or more shutout innings in his debut, joining Eric Milton, Anthony Swarzak and Andrew Albers. But Smeltzer allowed fewer hits (three), struck out more batters (seven) and issued fewer walks (none) than those rookies.
But because Milwaukee right-hander Zach Davies matched him zero for zero, Smeltzer is also the only one of the four not to debut with a win.
The victory went to Matt Magill, who took over in the seventh inning, maintained the shutout despite a leadoff double by Ryan Braun, and watched as the Twins celebrated Davies' departure with rockets all over the ballpark. Jason Castro greeted lefthander Alex Claudio with a single, and moved to third base when second baseman Keston Hiura fielded Willians Astudillo's ground ball but hit Castro in the shoulder with it.
Max Kepler, the newly crowed AL Player of the Week, then broke the offensive silence with a double off the wall in right-center, scoring the night's first two runs. Two batters later, C.J. Cron doubled to almost the same spot against right-hander Junior Guerra, scoring Kepler.
And with the crowd chanting "Ed-die, Ed-die," Eddie Rosario blasted an 85-mph splitter from Guerra over the seats atop the right field wall, giving the Twins a five-run cushion and the announced crowd of 27,120 a reason to party. The Brewers got home runs later from Kuira and Yasmani Grandal, but the Twins' bullpen held.
Nobody could have been happier than Smeltzer, unless it was his parents Tom and Chris, who flew in from New Jersey earlier in the day after the Twins made the surprise announcement that the 23-year-old left-hander, who owns a 1.15 ERA in nine minor-league starts this year, would be called up for that night's game.
Smeltzer appeared nervous as he warmed up in the bullpen, but once the game began, he was unfazed by his big-league surroundings and masterful on the mound. Using a fastball that nipped 90 mph only seven times and never after the first inning, Smeltzer confounded the Brewers' powerful lineup with his command of the strike zone _ and his ability to avoid it.
The first inning was a striking example of his ability to pitch without blow-you-away velocity. Smeltzer struck out Lorenzo Cain, with the All-Star outfielder reaching awkwardly for an 85-mph changeup on strike three. He retired reigning MVP Christian Yelich on a ground ball to shortstop, his final pitch the only one that pierced the strike zone. And he froze Braun with a 90-mph fastball near the bottom of the zone, recording his second strikeout.
In all, Smeltzer threw 17 pitches in his first big-league inning, 12 of them strikes, and three of them swing-and-misses. But only four pitches were actually in the strike zone.
Smeltzer had some close calls, too. Grandal tripled off the center-field wall to lead off the second inning, with Byron Buxton bruising his knee on the play and coming out of the game. But Smeltzer retired the side with Grandal still standing on third. Yelich also drove the ball to the warning track in the third inning, and Kepler made a leaping catch at the right-field wall in the fourth, turning that one into an inning-ending double play.
