{"id":739370,"date":"2026-06-30T10:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/739370\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T10:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:57:18","slug":"twins-5-astros-4-twins-ride-dominant-zebby-matthews-outing-to-win-over-astros-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/739370\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins 5, Astros 4: Twins Ride Dominant Zebby Matthews Outing to Win Over Astros – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBox Score<\/a>
SP: Zebby Matthews<\/a>: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 7 K, 1 BB
HR: Royce Lewis<\/a> (8), Victor Caratini<\/a> (7), Josh Bell<\/a> (10)
Top 3 WPA: Matthews 0.25, Caratini 0.13, Bell 0.12
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs<\/a>):
\"image.png\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Minnesota Twins entered Monday night’s series opener in Houston knowing the competition was about to get much tougher. After taking a series from the Colorado Rockies, Minnesota kicked off a six-game road trip against an Astros club that had won nine of its previous 12 games, before heading to Yankee Stadium this weekend. The Twins were also without Byron Buxton<\/a>, who was held out of the lineup after experiencing a recurrence of hip discomfort and undergoing imaging, according to MLB.com’s Matthew Leach.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThat didn’t stop them from taking control of the game early, even if the finish ended up being far more dramatic than it needed to be.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe biggest reason was Zebby Matthews. After recording three quality starts in his previous four outings while pitching at least six innings in each, Matthews built on that momentum with arguably his best start of the 2026 season. The right-hander tossed seven innings of one-run ball, allowing just four hits while striking out seven and walking only one. His only mistake came in the fifth inning, when Cam Smith<\/a> connected for a solo home run. Outside of that swing, Matthews was in complete control all night.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMatthews gave the Twins exactly the kind of start they needed, and the offense rewarded him with an early cushion. After being held hitless through the first three innings, Minnesota broke through in the fourth when Victor Caratini and Royce Lewis launched back-to-back home runs. Both hitters continued their outstanding months of June, and Josh Bell joined them two innings later. Bell, who entered the night with an .880 OPS this month after his miserable start to the season, crushed a two-run homer to extend the lead to 4-1. Kody Clemens<\/a> added one more insurance run in the seventh with an RBI groundout, giving the Twins what looked like a comfortable 5-1 advantage.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMatthews’s seven frames meant the bullpen only needed to notch the final six outs. Travis Adams<\/a> looked poised to do just that, retiring the first five batters he faced before Taylor Trammell<\/a> spoiled the effort with a two-out, full-count, two-run home run in the ninth inning to trim Minnesota’s lead to 5-3.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThat forced the Twins to turn to Yoendrys G\u00f3mez<\/a> for the final out. Instead, the Astros made things even more interesting when Smith launched a solo homer to make it a one-run game. G\u00f3mez settled down, however, retiring the final batter of the night to earn his eighth save of the season as the Twins hung on for the 5-4 victory.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Twins passed the first test of a challenging road trip. Matthews delivered the best outing of his season, while Lewis, Bell, and Caratini continued their hot stretches at the plate to provide enough offense. It got far more interesting than anyone expected over the final two outs, but the Twins ultimately did enough to open the road trip with a much-needed win.<\/p>\n

What’s Next
The Twins will look to lock up the series on Tuesday evening at 7:10 p.m. CT. Joe Ryan<\/a> is scheduled to take the mound for Minnesota against Astros right-hander Mike Burrows<\/a>, as the Twins try to string together some series victories and position themselves to buy (or at least not sell) at the trade deadline.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBullpen Usage Chart\n<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTHU<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tFRI<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSAT<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSUN<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSUN<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tP<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tRaya<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t40<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t40<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBanda<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t11<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t14<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t25<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tMorris<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t6<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t12<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t18<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tFunderburk<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t20<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t25<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t45<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tOrze<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t14<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t14<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tG\u00f3mez<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t4<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t7<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t11<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tRogers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t9<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t9<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tAdams<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t35<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t35<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Box ScoreSP: Zebby Matthews: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 7 K, 1 BBHR: Royce Lewis (8), Victor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,3758,3541,822,60,3190,4,408,148,3614,767],"class_list":["post-739370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-baseball","tag-game-recap","tag-josh-bell","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-royce-lewis","tag-twins","tag-victor-caratini","tag-zebby-matthews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116838704488021574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}