Christian Vázquez's snap throw keys Twins' victory over Giants

New York Times

11-05-2025

MINNEAPOLIS — For a while there, Christian Vázquez didn't play as often as he'd like. The split for playing time behind the plate has evened out, but for a minute Vázquez was starting less frequently as the Minnesota Twins looked to Ryan Jeffers for more offense.
No matter how Vázquez viewed the team's mid-April decision, his manager Rocco Baldelli wasn't concerned. He knows the veteran catcher is one of the more team-oriented players on his squad and never lets emotions get in the way of his preparation.
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Baldelli also knows Vázquez is capable of delivering game-winning plays as he did twice Saturday night.
Not only did Vázquez jump-start the Twins' game-winning rally with a leadoff walk against San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb in the third inning but he also later saved the game with a snap throw to third base.
Vázquez's eighth-inning pickoff throw ended a potential Giants rally and preserved a 2-1 victory in front of 23,812 at Target Field, the Twins' seventh straight win. Trevor Larnach provided the Twins' only offense, belting a key two-run homer in the team's second straight victory when scoring three runs or fewer after opening the season with 17 straight losses in those contests.
The win improved the Twins to 20-20, less than three weeks after they stumbled to a 7-15 start.
'He's always ready,' Baldelli said. 'He takes challenges of any kind and he uses them I think to his advantage. He's got great mental strength to handle things. He's handled a lot of different things in his career. You could walk through his career and you look at it and you go, 'Man, this guy, he's accomplished a lot.' It's not by chance. He continually puts himself in position to succeed, and he does that upstairs. He does that with his mind. The guy is ready to play. He's a gamer.'
Vázquez laughed as he described a play that sapped the Giants of momentum, saying he couldn't give away how he signaled to third baseman Royce Lewis about the pickoff throw. Even if there was a sign, Lewis didn't see it.
But Lewis was ready and waiting because of the situation: One out, the tying runner on third base with a left-handed batter at the plate, a spot that allowed for him to play closer to the base. Lewis also recognizes how Vázquez takes chances when the spot arises.
With Patrick Bailey hitting, Heliot Ramos taking a big lead off third and the contact play likely on, Vázquez didn't hesitate. Cole Sands threw a first-pitch fastball high and Vázquez popped up almost before the ball even arrived, delivering a laser to Lewis just above the back of Ramos. Lewis caught the ball and applied a swipe tag, cutting down Ramos before he could safely retreat.
Tag, you're out! pic.twitter.com/npYRjrc7a9
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 11, 2025
'I think I was looking a little late because (Vázquez) said he was looking for me, and I wasn't looking at him,' Lewis said. 'In that situation, the heat of the moment, we've got to make a play there, and I think he just trusted the fact that I would be there ready for him. … I knew when he threw it on the money like that, that we were going to get him.'
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The Twins were full of big plays Saturday night, the kind that were absent earlier in the season. Willi Castro started the game with a leaping catch at the wall in right-center to take a hit away from Mike Yastrzemski. Byron Buxton also jumped to track down a Christian Koss drive to start the sixth inning.
An inning after Vázquez's heroics, Jhoan Duran added another. Following a leadoff bunt single by Koss in the ninth, Duran snagged a hard comebacker off the bat of Yastrzemski and started a critical 1-6-3 double play to thwart another potential San Francisco rally. From there, Duran struck out Willy Adames, and the Twins celebrated.
'Vibes are really good,' Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan said. 'We're beating really good teams and we're beating them with good baseball. We're playing quality baseball. We're throwing the ball well, we're hitting the ball hard. We're running hard. We're stealing bases when we need to. I think we're doing a lot of really good things, and I think it just feels consistent. It doesn't feel streaky. So that adds another layer of confidence.'
The confidence partly comes from a rotation creeping up the league's Wins Above Replacement rankings toward the top spot.
Five days after he had a 102-degree fever and vomited 30 times, Ryan had another impressive outing.
Even though he acknowledged feeling weak, Ryan mostly maintained good velocity on his fastball with plenty of life. Ryan's fastball averaged 92.3 mph, just down from his 93 mph season average, and generated eight of his 12 swings-and-misses in 76 pitches.
Ryan set down the side in order in the first, third, fourth and sixth innings. Despite his velocity dipping over the final two frames, Ryan was outstanding, a Ramos homer in the second inning his only blemish.
Ryan finished with a run and two hits allowed while striking out seven over six innings. Afterward, Ryan said he was sick throughout the start.
'I felt horrible,' Ryan said. 'Honestly I didn't know where the ball was going as much. … I felt super dehydrated, and I felt that was where the command was leaving me even more.'
His name is Trevor Larnach and he just LAUNCHED that ball! pic.twitter.com/8yIVS5PBuT
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 10, 2025
Same as the Giants with Ryan, the Twins only got to Webb once when they were trailing 1-0. Vázquez worked a full count, fouling off a 2-2 pitch before drawing a walk to start the third inning. After Webb fanned Buxton, Larnach ripped a first-pitch sweeper out to right field for a homer, only the second allowed by Webb all season.
'We're clicking,' Vázquez said. 'Pitching and everybody's hitting in big moments like Larnach. Every night it's a different guy, and I think that's very important on a winning team.'
(Photo of Christian Vázquez, Jhoan Duran and Brooks Lee: Ellen Schmidt / Associated Press)