By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Anyone who has watched Jose Berrios pitch for the Rochester Red Wings knows it’s not a matter of if, but when, the ever-confident right-hander becomes a mainstay in the Minnesota Twins rotation.
He showed why again on Sunday afternoon, pitching eight shutout innings as the Wings improved to 12-9 with a 5-1 victory over the Louisville Bats at Frontier Field.
Berrios struck out seven, allowed just two hits and walked two in his eight innings. Ho-hum. Just another terrific day on the office mound for the 22-year-old from Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
“For me, that’s the sharpest he’s been,” Red Wings manager Mike Quade said.
That’s quite a statement, because other than a burp at Gwinnett on April 19 (five hits, four runs, three earned in five innings), Berrios has been dominant.
In five Triple-A starts this season, he is 2-0 with a 1.09 ERA and 0.79 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched). Opponents are hitting just .157 and he is averaging 9.55 strikeouts per nine innings. Of the 33 innings he has pitched, 28 have been scoreless.
So why’s he still in Triple-A? He might not be for long. It’s quite possible that his next start will be at Target Field. CBS Sports already has Berrios as the projected starter for the Twins against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.
Now all along, the Twins have said they won’t rush Berrios. They want him to believe that the same fastball, curveball and changeup that produce out after out in Triple-A will be equally effective against Major League hitters.
They saw what he did last summer in the first 14 MLB starts of his young career: 3-7, 8.02 ERA, a 1.87 WHIP and only 49 strikeouts with 35 walks in 58 1/3 innings. This is a guy who ranks fourth all-time in career ERA (2.54) for the Red Wings for pitchers who have thrown at least 150 innings. He’s just behind Mike Flanagan (2.39) and just ahead of Dennis Martinez (2.58) and Francisco Liriano (2.63).
However, success with the Red Wings hasn’t translated to success with the Twins. Yet.
“First and foremost, it’s a better league,” Quade said. “He hasn’t thrown as many strikes as he has here. You have to be a little finer there and hitters have forced him to do that.”
Thus, the keys to success when Berrios does go back up:
1) He needs his good fastball, the one that does the little zig-zag on its way to the catcher’s mitt. “He has to have movement,” Quade said.
2) He can’t be throwing over the heart of the plate; pinpoint command is essential.
“You see it here and you hope it translates there,” Quade said.
And what makes Quade believe Berrios will be just fine when he does rejoin the Twins: The manner in which he has retired batters from the Syracuse Chiefs, Buffalo Bisons, Gwinnett Braves and Louisville Bats.
He hasn’t had them chasing out-of-the-zone pitches, pitches that will never be effective at the next level.
“He’s getting people out with strikes here,” Quade said.
Berrios also battles. He had two great confrontations in Sunday’s seventh inning, the first with Tony Renda and the next with Sebastian Elizalde. The game was still scoreless. Both at-bats went nine pitches, as Renda and Elizalde fouled off fastball after fastball. Berrios eventually won both battles, freezing each hitter with the same marvelous curve ball. He refused to give in.
“That’s baseball,” Berrios said. “You have to compete every moment.”
Berrios was well aware he could be starting the season in Triple-A; he understood. He’s also committed to becoming a better pitcher.
“I have to be consistent,” he said. “I have to be in the strike zone with all three pitches.
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