Twins are one shutout away from tying team record

Three of the first four Tigers hitters collected singles against Dylan Bundy on Saturday, quickly ending any chance of matching a 49-year-old team record. But the Twins have four more tries in 2022.

Friday's 7-0 victory over Detroit marked the 17th shutout thrown by the Twins' pitching staff, just one fewer than the 18 that Minnesota's 1967 and 1973 teams managed. It's tied for the most in the American League, an odd achievement for a team that, entering Saturday, owned a collective 4.00 ERA, only 10th-best in the American League.

"It shows the upside of what our group here is capable of," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Seventeen shutouts, that's a big number."

Here's an even bigger one: 22. That's how many Twins pitchers have taken part in a Twins shutout this season: eight starters and a whopping 14 relievers. It's a good illustration of how pitching has evolved over the years, because the Twins needed only seven pitchers to produce 18 shutouts in 1967, and seven more in 1973. Only Hall of Famer Jim Kaat had a hand in both.

Another Hall of Famer, Bert Blyleven, accounted for nine of the shutouts himself in 1973, and in 33 of the 36 shutouts in those two record-setting seasons, the starting pitcher threw all nine innings. In fact, relievers accounted for only four outs in 1967, and seven in 1973, a total of 3⅔ innings.

Considering no starting pitcher has ever taken the mound in the ninth inning since Baldelli became manager in 2019, it's no surprise that this year's whitewashes include far more contributions from the bullpen. Starters account for 99⅓ of the 153 innings pitched in the Twins' 17 shutouts — only five starters even pitched more than six innings, despite having allowed no runs — and relievers have thrown 53⅔ innings.

"We have some very impactful bullpen arms that can come in and shut things down," Baldelli pointed out, and Jhoan Duran is the chief example of that. The rookie righthander has taken part in 10 of the team's shutouts, throwing a total of 11⅓ outs in those games. Caleb Thielbar, Griffin Jax and released-at-midseason Joe Smith each took part in five such games.

Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan each started five games in which the opponent never scored. Oddly, Tyler Mahle started only four games for the Twins after being acquired at the trade deadline, but two of them ended in shutouts.

But all those zeroes on the scoreboard don't provide much solace for Baldelli, not with his team under .500 and out of the playoffs.

"If I'm being objective, we know our collective effort has not been good enough," the manager conceded. "But the future has an opportunity to be good and bright, with a good pitching staff."

The baseball future looks very bright for the Correa family. And not just because of Carlos Correa.

Kylo Correa, who turns 1 in November, "looks like he's going to be a lefty," his father joked last week. "That's good. Lot more righthanded pitchers than lefties out there, you know. So we'll see."

As for the Twins shortstop, who can opt out of his contract and become a free agent a month from now, the decision over his future is his to make. He hired Scott Boras as his agent during the lockout last winter, and said he is well-prepared for contract negotiations, should he not reach a deal with the team first.

"I'm the boss, and I make the final decision with my wife" Daniella, Correa said. "I've got good advisers and a great agent, the best in the game. So they'll help me look at all sides. I listen, I analyze, and I make my decision."

With so much money at stake — a long-term contract figures to be worth hundreds of millions — has Correa considered asking out of the lineup now that the Twins are out of the playoff chase?

"Why would I ask out? I'm healthy and I want to play," Correa said. "I tell the young guys, you've got to go out there and play hard, show them what you can do. The same thing goes for me."

Baldelli confirmed that righthander Simeon Woods Richardson will start Sunday's game in Detroit. The 22-year-old Texan, acquired from Toronto in last year's Jose Berrios trade, will be the 61st player and 38th pitcher used by the Twins this year, and the 13th rookie to make his major league debut, all new franchise records.