Twins prospect Jose Berrios gets his long-awaited opportunity with big club

CLEVELAND – The Twins believe that righthander Jose Berrios is better, but they won't know for sure until he steps on the rubber against major league hitters.

And Berrios, just called up from Class AAA Rochester, will do just that Saturday when he faces an Indians lineup with several intimidating hitters.

Has Berrios, 3-7 with an 8.02 ERA in 11 major league starts last season, polished his pitching to the point where he can succeed? He has continued to work on an adjustment to his delivery, in which he brings his hands over and behind his head to help with his control.

"We've worked on a few things that some of our people have designed to help him get more consistent with his pitches, and he's put a lot of work into doing that," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "We've had a need here now. We have been fortunate with offdays and rainouts to not have to go too deep in terms of numbers in our rotation, but we are at that point where we've got to make some decisions."

Berrios made his major league debut April 27, 2016, against Cleveland at Target Field. He pitched two shutout innings before Francisco Lindor hit a two-run double off of him in the third. An RBI double by Jason Kipnis in the fifth knocked him from the game. He faced Cleveland two more times, getting his second major league victory Aug. 1 with six innings at Progressive Field.

The Twins sent righthander Nick Tepesch back to Rochester to make room for Berrios. He's looking to prove he is a better pitcher against a familiar foe.

"There's always risk with the young guy who has been up and down a bit," Molitor said. "He hasn't had a lot of success up here yet. But it just feels like the right time to give him a shot and get him into the mix and see how he responds this time around."

There was a rain delay before the 10th inning, during which the Cubs, having blown a three-run lead in the eighth inning, regrouped behind an emotional speech by outfielder Jason Heyward. The rest was history.

"There is a bigger ring than this, believe it or not," Gimenez said. "It would have been nice if that Game 7 had not gone differently. I'll go to my grave saying that if it had not rained, we would have won that game."

Gimenez was on the end of a different kind of speech when Indians President Chris Antonetti handed him his ring.

"He gave me a cool little speech about how important I was to the team, even though I think he was lying," Gimenez said. "No, but how much it meant for him to give this to me because Chris was one of the ones who drafted me in 2004."

The Twins were thrilled to hear that former manager Ron Gardenhire, who announced he had prostate cancer in February, is returning to his role as Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach.

"He's going back to a team that is playing well. I'm sure they will welcome him with open arms, in terms in what I've heard in terms of how he fit in with that staff and that group of people out there from day one."

Gardenhire will join the team Sunday and take his spot on the bench early next week.