{"id":282752,"date":"2024-05-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=282752"},"modified":"2024-05-23T11:20:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T16:20:58","slug":"woods-richardsons-start-sets-tone-in-twins-finale-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=282752","title":{"rendered":"Woods Richardson’s Start Sets Tone In Twins Finale Win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON — Simeon Woods Richardson<\/a> came into his seventh start of the 2024 season ready to show that he is not the same pitcher the Nationals faced last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Twins\u2019 No. 23 prospect<\/a>, per MLB Pipeline, did just that on Wednesday afternoon at Nationals Park, twirling 4 2\/3 scoreless innings and holding Washington to three hits and one walk en route to a 3-2 series-finale win<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSim gave us a good outing,\u201d Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. \u201cHe does his thing, which is mixing his pitches well. Pitching with a little bit of everything, he’s always going to do that. He got us right where we wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woods Richardson\u2019s performance was dominant compared to his last meetup with the Nationals in his lone MLB appearance in 2023 — when he allowed five runs on seven hits and three walks in 4 2\/3 relief innings. He exited that outing with a 9.64 ERA and dealt a total of 97 pitches (60 strikes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After entering Wednesday\u2019s game with a 2.97 ERA, ranking fifth among MLB rookies with 30 or more innings, Woods Richardson improved to 2.57 and now ranks third. He threw 77 pitches (48 strikes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think you just have to execute,\u201d the 23-year-old said. \u201cYou see everybody once or twice. Now it\u2019s to the point where it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, you\u2019re no longer a new face.\u2019 You have to execute the pitch and go execute your game plan. I think it was pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woods Richardson\u2019s relatively early exit from the game stemmed from the Twins having a well-rested bullpen and Baldelli wanting to take advantage of the off-day on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur starters have thrown in a few of these games pretty deep into the game,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cWe knew it wasn’t a day we had to push Sim a long way in the game and he was going to get us to wherever the best point was, matchup-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite striking out only one batter, Woods Richardson limited hard contact. The average exit velocity on balls in play against him was 85.5 mph, well below MLB’s season-long average of 88.5. His pitching allowed for the defense to get the outs necessary to stop any offensive threat from Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young prospect got off to a sharp start. Despite falling behind a few pitches early, he retired six of the first eight batters he faced in the first two innings. His sole focus throughout the game was simply getting swings and misses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt that point, I was like, \u2018OK, just try to be back in the strike zone, create contact, get easier outs,\u201d Woods Richardson said. \u201cIf I\u2019m getting weak contact and if I\u2019m getting swings and misses — maybe they are low — but if I\u2019m getting the stuff I want to see, then that\u2019s perfectly fine with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woods Richardson provided a strong foundation, and the offense also made sure to support his work early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Kepler led off the second frame, and one fastball from Nationals starter Jake Irvin was all he needed to send a Statcast-projected 409-foot homer into right-center field at 105.6 mph. The leadoff blast was reminiscent of his teammate Byron Buxton\u2019s performance in the Twins\u2019 10-0 shutout win<\/a> on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Correa followed suit in the sixth inning. As the shortstop walked up for his third at-bat, his plan was to hit a curveball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan worked. With two outs and a 1-0 count, Correa launched his second home run of the series into the stands in left field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe went up there with a good plan, he hammered a curveball, something slower,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cThat’s making an adjustment in a game, all the stuff we’re talking about, that’s what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final insurance run came in the top of the ninth, when Ryan Jeffers singled on a curveball from Hunter Harvey, allowing Kepler to score from second base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After winning a tight game, the Twins will return home after an off-day with a series victory under their belt. The plan: Bring the positive energy from Wednesday into Friday\u2019s series opener against the Rangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re playing with confidence. We\u2019re playing with conviction,\u201d Woods Richardson said. \u201cOur offense is creating pressure. We\u2019re doing a lot of quality things for quality wins right now. We\u2019re better than that, and we\u2019re playing with confidence right now. That\u2019s all we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — Simeon Woods Richardson came into his seventh start of the 2024 season ready to show that he is not the same pitcher the Nationals faced last year. The Twins\u2019 No. 23 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, did just that on Wednesday afternoon at Nationals Park, twirling 4 2\/3 scoreless innings and holding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":274823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282766,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282752\/revisions\/282766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}