Even Dallas Keuchel appeared amazed by what he had done.
The former Cy Young Award winner, a midseason lottery ticket for his new team’s rotation, walked off the mound in the seventh inning to loud cheers at Target Field, having provided one of the most improbable performances of the season — and a 2-0 victory over the Pirates.
Despite never throwing a pitch faster than 88 mph, Keuchel dominated Pittsburgh, retiring each of the first 19 hitters he faced. Finally, with one out in the seventh inning, the lefthander gave up a deep fly ball to Bryan Reynolds that bounced off the right-field wall a couple of feet too high for Matt Wallner to catch it.
Manager Rocco Baldelli immediately hopped out of the dugout and removed the 35-year-old veteran, who accepted congratulations from his teammates before strolling to the dugout, wiping his face in seeming disbelief as he walked.
For Keuchel, the turnaround from his last start was striking. Nine days earlier in Philadelphia, he gave up six runs while recording only five outs, raising speculation that his return to the major leagues might be cut abruptly short. He owned a 9.45 ERA after two starts with the Twins, and hadn’t struck out any of the 36 hitters he had faced.
Keuchel whiffed three hitters Sunday, including Endy Rodriguez twice, but was a master of weak contact. Reynolds’ fly ball, a double that finally ended Keuchel’s day, was the only swing by a Pirates player that produced a 100-mph exit velocity, as the veteran induced weak grounder after routine fly ball after popup on the infield.
It was the second day in a row that a Twins pitcher was perfect through five innings, but unlike Sonny Gray’s sudden turnaround that wound up as a Twins loss, Baldelli didn’t allow Keuchel to risk the Twins’ tenuous lead. Griffin Jax struck out Andrew McCutchen and Ke’Bryan Hayes to finish Keuchel’s final inning, and Caleb Thielbar and Jhoan Duran closed out the Twins’ 10th shutout of the season, completing a two-hit shutout.
The Twins’ fifth victory in their last seven games, combined with the Guardians’ loss to the Tigers, increased Minnesota’s AL Central lead to six games.
Edouard Julien and Donovan Solano provided both runs for the Twins. Solano singled in the fourth inning and scored on Julien’s sacrifice fly; he smacked a leadoff double two innings later, and Julien doubled him home.