Slump over, Jose Berrios makes final home start of 2019 regular season

The righthander has rebounded from a terrible August, and has the look of an ace again.

September 21, 2019 at 10:28PM
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Jose Berrios (17) pitched in the seventh inning. ] LEILA NAVIDI • leila.navidi@startribune.com BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Minnesota Twins play the Washington Nationals at Target Field in Minneapolis on Tuesday, September 10, 2019.
Jose Berrios. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The Twins believe Jose Berrios has solved his August recession and is ready to dominate again, just in time for October. But one more confirmation wouldn't be bad, either.

Berrios, whose ERA was 2.80 on Aug. 1 and then 8.07 over his next six starts, has bounced back with two runs over his last 14 1/3 innings. He'll make his final Target Field start tonight at 6:10, taking on a Royals team that hasn't scored more than three runs in a start against him since 2017.

"I can't point to one particular thing," admitted Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. "He looks like a tremendous version of himself. He's looked as good recently as I've ever seen him. Stuff's way up, the command's up, the execution has been very good."

Berrios is 7-4 at home this season, so he can't eclipse last season's 9-4 performance at Target Field. But he'd like to cut the Twins' magic number, which currently stands at five.

Here are the lineups for tonight's game:

ROYALS

Merrifield 2B

Mondesi SS

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Soler DH

Dozier 3B

Gordon LF

McBroom RF

O'Hearn 1B

Viloria C

Phillips CF

Sparkman RHP

TWINS

Arraez 2B

Polanco SS

Cruz DH

Rosario LF

Sano 3B

Gonzalez 1B

Cave RF

Castro C

Wade Jr. CF

Berrios RHP

about the writer

about the writer

Phil Miller

Reporter

Phil Miller has covered the Twins for the Minnesota Star Tribune since 2013. Previously, he covered the University of Minnesota football team, and from 2007-09, he covered the Twins for the Pioneer Press.

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