Twins keep one lefty, Caleb Thielbar, in bullpen because Astros crush lefthanded pitching

HOUSTON – As the Twins debated the final spot on their 26-man American League Division Series roster, it came down to speed off the bench and a second lefthanded reliever in the bullpen.

Speed won. The Twins removed rookie lefthanded reliever Kyle Funderburk from their 26-man roster for the American League Division Series to make room for Game 1 starter Bailey Ober. Funderburk did not make an appearance in the wild-card round, but the move left Caleb Thielbar as the lone lefty in the Twins bullpen.

Speedy outfielder Andrew Stevenson did not appear in the wild-card series either, but he remained on the roster. He stole four bases in five attempts in September.

"One thing our pitching group does have to offer is we have five active starters on an ALDS roster, which I don't think every team has," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "On top of that, we have another guy or two that can go two or three innings in the pen. We have several guys that can cover more than an inning."

Another reason why the Twins decided they were OK with only one lefty in the bullpen is how much Houston's lefthanded batters crush lefthanded pitching. Designated hitter Yordan Alvarez posted an .892 OPS in 174 plate appearances against lefties and right fielder Kyle Tucker had a .934 OPS in 238 plate appearances.

The only lefthanded batters in the majors who had a higher OPS against lefty pitching than Tucker this season were the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman and the Cubs' Cody Bellinger.

And sure enough, Alvarez homered off Thielbar in Game 1. Alvarez had a two-home run game as the Astros beat the Twins 6-4.

Carlos Correa has made a career of defensive highlights, and he pulled out another trick in the seventh inning Saturday.

José Abreu attempted to advance on a wild pitch after he drew a two-out walk off Thielbar. After the ball kicked away from catcher Ryan Jeffers, he took a quick peek at how fast Abreu was running before he grabbed the ball with his bare hand, spun and fired a throw to second base.

Correa, anticipating a throw from Jeffers, put up his hand like he didn't want the catcher to throw. Jeffers, meanwhile, wasn't looking as he spun before his throw. Abreu slowed in front of the bag, which gave Correa enough time to apply a tag for an inning-ending out.

"You have to break out all your moves in the playoffs," Correa said. "If you break them out in the season, then everybody is aware of them."

Astros manager Dusty Baker said Abreu wasn't deked by Correa, but the Astros first baseman has a "big old lump on his leg," and he was trying to avoid sliding.

"A bad play, an ugly play on my end turned into a good play," Jeffers said, "so that's nice."

Royce Lewis started Game 1 of the ALDS at designated hitter, but the Twins haven't ruled out him playing third base over the next week.

Lewis, who missed the last two weeks of the regular season because of a hamstring strain but has three homers in three postseason games, fielded ground balls at third base Friday. Baldelli said Lewis was making "gradual progress," but he's not at the point where he's ready to start games at third without risk of aggravating his hamstring.

"Can he make most of the plays right now without issue? Yes, he can," Baldelli said. "But it's not really about making most of the plays. It's about some of the more difficult plays that he will have to be asked to make in these games."

Byron Buxton took swings in a live batting practice session during Friday's workout at Minute Maid Park, homering off Jorge Alcala into the left field Crawford Boxes, but he wasn't under serious consideration for the ALDS roster.

"With the way the rest of the roster is shaking out, Royce and where he's at right now, just felt the best thing for us to do is deepen the position players so we have more flexibility," Falvey said. "Byron hasn't progressed yet to running the bases, pushing, running a lot more, and that's probably the gap there at this point."

• The Twins announced Game 3 and a potential Game 4 of the ALDS at Target Field are sold out.

• Johan Santana tweeted, "Great job. That shirt looks great on you" in response to Pablo López wearing Santana's jersey before López's Game 1 start in the wild-card series. López idolized Santana growing up in Venezuela. His reaction to the tweet? "I couldn't believe it when it happened," he said Saturday.

• Houston's ALDS roster didn't include veteran reliever Kendall Graveman because of right shoulder discomfort. The Astros are also going with 14 position players and 12 pitchers — only one of whom is lefthanded, Framber Valdez.