Jose Berrios turns in rare poor outing as Twins lose 12-7 to Braves

Even All-Stars have ugly nights. It felt as if Jose Berrios had about three of them Tuesday.

The Twins' ace righthander, who hadn't allowed more than three earned runs in a start since mid-May, opened his first career start against the Braves with a fastball down the middle. When it ricocheted off the limestone facing above the batter's eye in center field after being redirected by Ronald Acuna Jr. — his sixth leadoff home run of the season — Berrios was on a road he hadn't traveled in a long time.

By the time he departed a couple of hours and 5⅔ innings later, Berrios had given up nine runs, more than in any other start in his four-year career, and the Twins had absorbed a 12-7 beating from Atlanta at Target Field. The loss trimmed Minnesota's AL Central lead to 3½ games over rained-out Cleveland.

"I didn't locate that first pitch. It was a fastball, but I left it right in the middle," said Berrios, whose ERA ballooned from 2.80, third lowest in the American League, to 3.24, suddenly only seventh best. "The only thing I want to remember is the home runs we hit and how we tried to battle back. On my end, I just want to forget about it and move forward."

Oh yes, the four homers. They came too late to save Berrios, but even a rough night on the scoreboard comes with the now-standard fireworks.

Nelson Cruz smacked a couple of them, giving him 16 since the All-Star break, 32 this season, and 392 for his career. The first one, a 429-foot shot off the upper-deck ribbon scoreboard, allowed him to pass Graig Nettles into 62nd place in MLB history. The second one traveled a mere 421 feet. Mitch Garver hit his 21st of the year in the sixth inning, and Eddie Rosario added an opposite-field homer into the flower pots in left field in the ninth.

That gave the Twins 223 homers this season, only two away from their single-season franchise record of 225 set in 1963.

Only one problem: All the long balls came after Atlanta built a shocking 11-0 lead against Berrios and reliever Cody Stashak.

"On a night like [Tuesday, the home runs] can almost go by and not get spoken about very much," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "For most players, a night like [Tuesday] is the night of the year, and for [Cruz], it seems like it's just another day."

For Berrios, it was a day unlike any other. The 25-year-old righthander had been particularly effective since the All-Star break, allowing no runs in two of his three most recent starts. But Acuna made that stat moot before the game was 30 seconds old, the first time since his rookie season that Berrios had allowed a home run to the first batter he faced.

Freddie Freeman quickly got in on the act, too. With two runners on base in the third inning, Freeman drove a curveball into the Braves' bullpen, the first three-run homer that Berrios had allowed since last September. It abruptly stopped Berrios' streak of 12 consecutive starts in which he had allowed three or fewer earned runs, the longest such streak by a Twin since Johan Santana's 22 in a row in 2004.

"Any time there is a three-run home run early in the game, it definitely shifts the momentum of what's going on. It's probably one to kind of wipe the slate clean of and kind of move on," Baldelli said. "Jose's been pitching great for us. He's had a great run going."

Two innings later, the Braves' speed cost Berrios another run, when Acuna singled, stole second and scored on Ozzie Albies' single to right. And an inning later, an umpire's call seemed to rattle Berrios and end his night.

With two runners on and two outs, Berrios held the ball for an extended time. Suddenly, second base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt signaled for a balk, allowing Matt Joyce to jog home from third base and Ender Inciarte to move to second. Berrios, who hadn't balked since 2017, appeared disbelieving of the call, standing behind the mound and staring at Wendelstedt. Finally, he returned to the mound, and Acuna quickly singled Inciarte home. When Albies followed with a long fly ball that bounced off the right-center wall, about two inches below the home-run line, that turned it into a triple and Berrios' night was over.

Nine runs, nine hits and four walks for the Twins' ace, a startling setback for a pitcher who had thrown two seven-inning, quality starts leading into Tuesday — and an outing that quickly went from bad to worst.

"Unfortunately, that's going to happen sometimes. We're in the big leagues," Berrios said. "I tried to execute my plan. They did theirs, and today was not my day."