Jose Berrios has earned the victory three times in five career meetings against his former team.
On Saturday evening in Minneapolis, Berrios will try to improve on that total for the Toronto Blue Jays as they play the Minnesota Twins in the second contest of a three-game set.
Berrios, 30, spent his first five-plus seasons with the Twins. He went 55-43 and struck out 779 in 781 1/3 innings before Minnesota traded him to Toronto during the 2021 season.
Berrios (13-9, 3.72 ERA) overcame a bumpy first full season with the Blue Jays to turn into a front-line starter. The right-hander has won double-digit games for the fourth year in a row, and he has nearly an identical winning percentage with Toronto (.562) as he did with Minnesota (.561).
In his first five starts against the Twins, Berrios is 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA.
The Twins will counter on Saturday with rookie right-hander Zebby Matthews (1-1, 3.00 ERA), who is set to make his fourth start since being promoted from Triple-A St. Paul. The 24-year-old is coming off a no-decision against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday despite limiting them to one run on four hits in five innings. The Cardinals won 3-2.
In 15 innings in the big leagues, Matthews has walked two and struck out 13. That includes a high mark of seven strikeouts in his last outing vs. St. Louis.
This will be Matthews’ first appearance against Toronto.
The Twins are looking to win again after taking the series opener 2-0 on Friday night. Carlos Santana and Willi Castro each drove in a run in the fifth inning.
Veteran right-hander Pablo Lopez stymied the Blue Jays for 7 2/3 scoreless innings to help the Twins snap a four-game skid.
“I was highly motivated,” Lopez said. “Every game has its challenges, every game has its reasons to find that competitive edge, that competitive fire. We knew that the last couple games … it wasn’t really our game, our baseball.
“It’s a long season. It’s hard not to go through those moments. You definitely don’t want to go through those late in the second half, making the push that we’re making. But I just used it to be more focused, be more locked in, make sure every pitch had a purpose.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider will look for better production out of his lineup during Saturday’s rematch. Toronto did not record an extra-base hit in the series opener.
The Blue Jays had seven singles but ended multiple innings with double plays.
“Any time you get a couple guys on, you’ve got to cash one in there,” Schneider said.
The Twins are looking for back-to-back wins after losing eight of their previous 10 games. They trail the first-place Cleveland Guardians by 3 1/2 games in the American League Central.
“There are a lot of high hopes for this club, a lot of lofty goals,” Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers said. “But if we want to achieve those goals, we’ve got to play better baseball. We understand we’re relying on some young guys in really important roles. We’re depleted with injuries. There’s a lot of things you can point fingers at. But at the end of the day, we believe in this team, and we know we’ve got to play better.”
