Walks haunt Twins early as Brewers stop Minnesota’s win streak at 13

MILWAUKEE In the run-up to his first big league start of the season Minnesota Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews admitted that he had struggled with walks in a sparse of his minor league starts in but felt that his stuff had been good On Sunday at American Family Field Matthews stuff generally was good with five strikeouts in just three innings of work but ultimately a series of walks proved to be his undoing Three Brewers who had gotten free passes in the third inning came around to number as Milwaukee beat the Twins - in the finale of their Rivalry Series snapping the second-best win streak in franchise history at Couldn t get it done at present An amazing run over the last two weeks I had to tell the guys that after the meeting Twins manager Rocco Baldelli noted There s a lot of work to be done and I informed them we re just kind of scratching the surface as far as what we re capable of this year That was just a great run of baseball one of the best two-week spans of baseball I ve ever been a part of in my life and we want to get it going again the coming day and start a new one The Twins begin a three-game series against Cleveland on Monday at Target Field First pitch is set for p m Royce Lewis hit a homer and was inches from a second but Minnesota ultimately could not overcome Milwaukee s early lead It goes back to the walks there It s hard to get away with three walks in an inning regardless of the pitcher disclosed Matthews who only walked three Ultimately get the two quick outs I ve got to finish the inning there Definitely got to be better there Matthews ran the Twins association record scoreless innings streak to in the first striking out the side on pitches But Milwaukee certainly made a mark on its massive and malfunctioning scoreboard in the second inning Christian Yelich and Rhys Hoskins both singled and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Isaac Collins When Sal Frelick dropped a single into right field Yelich came in from third for the first Brewers run of the series After getting two quick outs in the third Matthews made more trouble for himself walking the bases loaded then surrendering a two-run single to Collins and another RBI single to Frelick as Milwaukee opened up a - lead Matthews who fell to - with the loss ended up throwing more than of his pitches in that inning which prompted a pitching change It started out really strong The fastball and the current ball all looked good He throws a good cutter as well and he mixed that in Baldelli revealed But that inning I think what happened was he apparently lost the command a little bit He threw a couple of strikes that he didn t get calls on and that doesn t necessarily mean he would have gotten through the inning clean or anything like that But it s tough Minnesota ultimately had an offensive answer in the top of the fourth when Lewis hit a - pitch over the left field fence for his first home run of the season The Twins got a pair of walks and an error in the inning to load the bases with two outs but Ryan Jeffers flew out to right to end the threat After reliever Cole Sands set the Brewers down in order in the fourth Kody Clemens sent a ball to the wall in deep center with two outs in the fifth but Milwaukee outfielder Jackson Chourio gloved it at the top of the fence Minnesota got a run back in the seventh and was inches from tying the tournament in the eighth when Clemens led off with a double then Chourio produced a web gem leaping to pull a expected Lewis home run off the top of the fence in left center If he doesn t catch that I think we win the championship for sure It changes the momentum mentioned Lewis who noted the Twins are a confident bunch despite the winning streak s conclusion When a pitcher is beaming because he knows he got away with one you know you re in a good spot I think we re riding high I know we lost at present but we had a great two weeks there That was really awesome and for me to be a part of it with these guys is special We re just going to keep going We re just getting started With two outs towering outfielder Carson McCusker made his major league debut as a pinch hitter and grounded out He played right field in the bottom of the eighth After Minnesota pitchers had retired straight Brewers Milwaukee manufactured an insurance run in the eighth when William Contreras walked went to second on a wild pitch advanced on a grounder and scored on a sacrifice fly Royce Lewis of the Minnesota Twins runs the bases following a home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fourth inning at American Family Field on May in Milwaukee Wisconsin Photo by Stacy Revere Getty Images Royce Lewis of the Minnesota Twins is congratulated by teammates following a home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fourth inning at American Family Field on May in Milwaukee Wisconsin Photo by Stacy Revere Getty Images Related Articles Pitching powers Twins to th consecutive win Byron Buxton becomes the Twins latest injured list addition A dozen the hard way as Twins blank Brewers Carlos Correa placed on -day injured list following collision Twins extend winning streak to by finishing another sweep of Orioles