Twins closer Jhoan Duran is thriving this season, despite velocity taking a dip

LOS ANGELES – Jhoan Duran’s fastball travels slower than it ever has in his big league career, and he uses it less frequently than ever before. His strikeout rate? Also at a career low.

As you might guess, those facts have made it much more difficult to have success when Duran is on the mound.

For the hitters to have success.

“I’d say this is my best year ever, yes,” Duran said Tuesday. “I think so because I have more good pitches now, and I have more of a mentality that I can beat you.”

It shows up in an entirely different set of statistics: the ones that measure the results he’s getting. Like the 1.62 ERA entering Tuesday night’s game, his best ever. The .207 batting average he allows, and the .232 slugging percentage. Only two blown saves in 17 opportunities.

“He’s clearly at the top of his game,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s got four pitches — two versions of the breaking ball, plus the split and that heater. That puts him in a really good place. The command has been good, the strike-throwing has been really good. He’s a complete pitcher, the way he’s throwing the ball.”

And he’s become a master at avoiding home runs. Until Shohei Ohtani connected in the ninth inning of the Twins’ 10-7 victory Tuesday night, Duran hadn’t allowed one in more than 13 months, a streak of 75⅔ innings that was the longest current streak in the majors and one of the six longest in Twins history.

Duran is known for his fastball, of course, having eclipsed 104 mph with a few of them in 2023. He still averages 100.3 mph with it, among the fastest in the majors, but he throws it only 34% of the time. It’s not even his most-used pitch; that’s the splitter — think of it as a 97.6-mph changeup — which he goes to 37.3% of the time.

He’s also got a knee-buckling curveball and his new addition: a sweeper, which almost seems unfair to opposing hitters.

“He had the depthy pitch, and now he’s got one that’s more sweepy,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said, describing the varying movement — vertical drop as opposed to horizontal movement — of the pitches. “He spots them at the bottom, and he can generally his fastball right where he wants to. It makes him so tough.”

It’s impressive that Duran, 27, is mature enough to want to fool hitters, not simply blow the ball past them, pitching coach Pete Maki said. Duran wanted to do both.

“His spin pitches, especially, they make him so much harder to hit,” Maki said. “He’s got two of them now. Last year, he just had the curveball, so the sweeper gives him some versatility there that’s a big help.”

“He realized he had the ability to do it,” Maki said. “Came to spring training feeling comfortable about throwing it, and it’s worked out really well.”

Speaking of long streaks, Royce Lewis broke one Monday night: He had not stolen a base in his last 130 games, dating back to 2023.

But after lining a single in the fourth inning, he beat Will Smith’s throw to second base, his first steal of the year.

“Yes, he had the green light. And he didn’t wait around — he went immediately,” Baldelli said. “I think he was excited to see that green light flash in his eyes and be able to just take off. But the key part was not just that he wanted it, but that he was prepared and got a good jump.”

And it’s something Lewis, who stole six bases in seven tries in 2023, would like to do more.

⋅ Twins righthander Bailey Ober will make a second rehab start for Class AAA St. Paul on Friday, the Twins announced. Ober has missed three weeks because of a left hip impingement.

⋅ Saints starter Randy Dobnak allowed six earned runs and walked three in four innings, and the Worcester Red Sox never trailed in defeating St. Paul 11-2 at CHS Field. It was the first-ever meeting of the teams.

⋅ The Twins claimed catcher Jhonny Pereda off waivers from the Athletics and assigned him to St. Paul. Pereda is a career .203 hitter in 37 major league games with the Marlins and A’s. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Twins designated Jair Camargo for assignment.