ATLANTA – Sonny Gray didn't bother turning his head when Marcell Ozuna connected with a fastball that caught too much of the plate in the seventh inning Monday.
Neither did Emilio Pagán when a splitter didn't split against Ronald Acuña Jr.
The Twins needed near perfection from their pitchers in a game that pitted Spencer Strider, baseball's top strikeout artist, against an offense that leads the league in strikeouts by a sizable margin. Predictably, Twins hitters struck out a lot.
And predictably, Atlanta hitters didn't miss pitches over the middle. The Twins were handed a 4-1 loss in their series opener at Truist Park, undone by two big swings in a three-run seventh inning.
Strider, who finished runner-up in last year's National League Rookie of the Year voting, struck out 10 batters in seven innings. Twins hitters looked overmatched by his slider, which is a pitch Strider pairs with a fastball that reached 99 miles per hour. It was Strider's 11th career start with a double-digit strikeout total and his fifth this season.
Joey Gallo launched a 98-mph fastball at the bottom of the strike zone to straightaway center for his second home run in the last three games. Strider retired 17 of the next 19 batters without allowing a baserunner to reach second base.
The Twins twice had two runners on base with one out. In the first inning, Strider escaped when Carlos Correa lined out to center and second baseman Ozzie Albies made a nice play on an inning-ending groundout. In the eighth, Edouard Julien and Alex Kirilloff hit back-to-back singles off Atlanta reliever Collin McHugh, but two flyouts ended the threat.
It was the 16th time the Twins have scored one run or fewer this season.
Gray matched Strider through the first six innings, one run scoring when the Twins were a step slow with their infield defense in the fourth inning. Austin Riley lined a single past second baseman Donovan Solano, who was correctly positioned up the middle but couldn't snag the rocket flying past him at 110 mph. Matt Olson pulled the next pitch down through the right side of the infield at 106 mph, which snuck past diving first baseman Alex Kirilloff.
With runners on the corners and one out, Gray induced a ground ball, but it was too much of a slow roller, and Solano's turn at second base was a split-second late to complete a double play.
Gray, otherwise, pitched out of trouble. He picked off a runner in the second inning and stranded two runners in the fifth inning. At 89 pitches, he continued into the seventh inning for the first time in his last four outings. Then Ozuna crushed his 94th pitch to center field for a go-ahead solo homer.
A two-out infield single from Michael Harris III ended Gray's outing after 6 2/3 innings. Pagán entered to protect a one-run lead, but he left a 1-2 splitter down the middle to Acuña, an MVP candidate, and the ball traveled 432 feet to left field.
It was the third homer Pagán has yielded this season and the first one that didn't result in the go-ahead run scoring.
