It ended up being Joe Mauer's night, but Jose Berrios was filthy again. His curveball looks even tighter than a year ago. Someone remarked that it breaks on two levels, up and down as much as left to right. When he's throwing it for strikes, he's going to be tough to beat. He also has a fastball that can touch 95, and he gets good movement on it when he throws it down in the strike zone.
He's made three starts:
One in which he threw a complete game shutout.
One in which he through three no-hit innings - and made it look easy - before falling apart.
One in which he dominated for seven innings.
"I'm not a pitching guru or a guy who sees a lot fo things than people who are more focused on that area," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "I see a compactness to his delivery that seems to be keeping him on line. There was a couple times tonight when he flew open a little bit and his arm trailed and that breaking ball backed up and we saw it."
But Berrios corrected himself and returned to shutting down Chicago. Even Roy Smalley went to twitter to sing Berrios' praises.
"My goodness. This is one of the biggest overmatches I have ever seen," Smalley wrote. "Chisox have absolutely no chance against Berrios' stuff. I will say again: he just needs to pound the strike zone. Hitters only chance is to get to 2-0 or 3-1."
Berrios fell behind 2-0 once all night. And got to three ball counts just twice.
Berrios is 2-1 with a 2.18 ERA and is setting himself up for a strong season. He could have more nights like Thursdays, especially when he runs into inexperienced lineups.
