Twins righty Chris Paddack makes progress on two-strike counts in return to Roger Dean Stadium

JUPITER, Fla. — Tuesday’s start at Roger Dean Stadium was a homecoming of sorts for Chris Paddack.The righthander was drafted by the Marlins in 2015, so his first two minor-league spring trainings took place here.

“This is kind of where it all started for me, so pretty cool to come back here to the old stomping grounds,” the 28-year-old Paddack said. “Fun being able to pitch in Roger Dean Stadium.”

The fun mostly extended into his 51-pitch start, too, with a few exceptions. The biggest one: Paul Goldschmidt’s first-inning at-bat — which wound up being the Cardinals’ first home run of the spring. (Not Goldschmidt’s, the entire team’s. After 10 Grapefruit League games, St. Louis was the only team without a homer.)

Paddack utilized all four of his pitches during his outing, except against Goldschmidt, who saw five pitches, all fastballs. He took the first three out of the strike zone, all low and away, then swung and missed at a letter-high 3-0 pitch. Paddack’s next was another fastball, this one on the inside corner, and Goldschmidt was ready. The ball easily cleared the center field fence.

“Facing Goldie in the past, I like to get ahead of him as quick as possible. He’s a dangerous hitter,” Paddack explained.

Why just fastballs? “Just to go right at him, I guess. I just tried to be too fine. Me and [catcher Christian Vázquez talked about it there between innings. That one at-bat I noticed I was trying to be so perfect to him, to not miss over the middle of the plate. If you miss, he’s going to do some damage, and that’s what he did there.”

That result was disappointing, the righthander said, but his real goal was to develop a plan for two-strike counts, and he believes he made progress. In fact, just being aware of those situations was a start, he said.

“I was aware of the count, so that’s a step forward for me. Not being a zombie out there, and being so locked in that I forget what’s going on,” he said. “I was present, but did not have wipeout stuff today. We were still able to get some quick outs and work some good at-bats there.”

Still, he retired only five of the eight hitters who faced two-strike counts, just two by strikeout, and the Twins are working with him to improve that.

“Two-strike execution is one of his goals [and] something we want him thinking about every time he takes the mound,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s a really good strike-thrower, and he gets into a lot of two-strike counts. It’s what he does then [that matters]. His best off-speed pitch for much of his career has been his changeup, so now it’s about getting breaking balls to get swings and misses. He doesn’t have to be in the zone with two strikes, he knows that, he’s working on it.”