Postgame: Slowest pitch of Berrios' career comes in handy

CLEVELAND — A bunch of extras on a busy night at Progressive Field:

Jose Berrios was getting tired of Jake Bauers. The Indians' cleanup hitter was batting with two outs in the sixth inning and Carlos Santana standing on first base, the result of an errant throw by Jorge Polanco, and Berrios wanted to finish him, and the inning, off. But Bauers wouldn't stop fouling balls away.

"He hit a lot of fastballs in that at-bat. Fastball away, fastball up and in. Breaking balls. Changeups. Fastball away," Berrios said, shaking his head. "So it's like, 'OK. Let me throw this pitch.' "

Berrios did. Bauers lunged at it and swung. Inning over.

And in the Twins' dugout Rocco Baldelli began looking around for answers.

"I had to almost double-check myself and ask some people in the dugout what that pitch was," the Twins manager said. "It almost, from the side, had so much action up and down, to the eye you weren't even sure what it was exactly. But having a good long at-bat, and then something like that gets thrown and thrown well and executed well, it's very tough."

So what was the pitch? Well, it was a changeup, Berrios said. Sort of. Maybe it was a super-changeup, because after peppering Bauers with fastballs that hit 94 mph, this softball was clocked at 71.7 mph — the slowest pitch Berrios has ever thrown in the big leagues.

Pretty creative. Effective, too.

"He made every adjustment he had to make. He even whipped out that throw-slow changeup for a strikeout," Baldelli said. "That's just an adjustment on the mound, on the go, and very, very special."

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That slow pitch was Berrios' 103rd of the night, but Baldelli sent him back out for the seventh inning anyway, or at least one batter. The manager planned to pull him after he faced Jose Ramirez, who hit a ground ball that Jonathan Schoop booted for an error.

"When you have those very long at-bats and you're pushing a pretty high number — it's not always about the number, it's about the stress on the guy and the way he gets to that number that matters," Baldelli said. "Regardless, it was a highly successful start. He executed very well."

Berrios was pleased with how well his changeup was working all night.

"Teams like Cleveland, I know they're looking for my fastball up and in, or my breaking ball for strikeouts," Berrios explained. "Tonight, the changeups were doing well because they were looking for the fastball or breaking ball. That's what we've been practicing."

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The Indians made the game closer than the Twins would have liked once Berrios departed. Cleveland struck for a pair of runs in the seventh inning, one scoring on a Tyler Naquin single of Matt Magill, the other on a Perez sacrifice fly.

And in the ninth, with the Twins nursing a two-run lead, rookie Orlando Mercado crushed a pinch-hit home run into the left-field bleachers off Taylor Rogers, the third homer Rogers has allowed in his last five outings.

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— The story of the night was Max Kepler, but if he hadn't hit three home runs, driving in four, it may have been Trevor Bauer. The Indians' righthander allowed a single to Willians Astudillo just before Kepler's second homer, and an RBI double to Mitch Garver in the fifth. But he gave up no other hits to the bottom eight hitters in Minnesota's lineup during his eight innings.

— The Twins finished a difficult stretch of dangerous opponents — the Brewers, Rays and Indians — with a 5-4 record, which they should be happy with. Even better: They now embark on nine consecutive games against teams with sub-.400 records: The Tigers, Mariners and Royals, whom they are already 9-4 against this year.

— Kepler memorably homered three times here at Progressive Field in his rookie season of 2016, too, in a game in which several other feats were overshadowed: Jorge Polanco, another rookie, tripled twice, Berrios retired 16 of the final 18 hitters he faced, and Joe Mauer homered off newly acquired bullpen ace Andrew Miller.