MINNEAPOLIS — Entering Wednesday’s series finale with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins second baseman Edouard Julien only had one home run.
He was hitting .107, coming off a strong rookie campaign in 2023. But even Freddie Freeman, the first baseman on the other side, could sense that a breakout was coming. Freeman was teammates with Julien on Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. Before Wednesday’s game, he was insistent that Julien was a talented hitter who would turn it around soon.
He did.
“It’s tough because you start the season, you have nothing that you can build on, because it was the first game,” Julien said. “I had a good spring training, but it’s different than the regular season.”
Julien tripled his season home run total, recording his first career multi-homer game with two bombs to the opposite field. His performance at the plate, combined with a solid start from Chris Paddack and a lockdown bullpen performance, helped the Twins (4-6) salvage the final game of the series after losing the first two. They beat the Dodgers (10-5) by a score of 3-2 at Target Field.
“We needed that win,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “And we needed to play the way we did in order for us to go and have a great road trip. It’s a tough team on the other side. You cannot be giving any extra outs.”
The Dodgers didn’t have their starting catcher Will Smith in the lineup, giving him a rest in a day game after a night game. Still, the hottest lineup in baseball got out to a quick 1-0 lead. Mookie Betts led off with a 104.6 mph single, and Shohei Ohtani drew a four-pitch walk. Cleanup hitter Tesocar Hernández snuck one through the right side to put the Dodgers on top.
But Paddack, making just his seventh start since 2021 due to injury, limited the damage. The Dodgers had two in scoring position with one out, and Paddack induced weak contact from Max Muncy and Kiké Hernández to keep them to one run.
“My biggest challenge for myself this year is to be present out there,” he said. “A situation that already happened or might happen, I take that away and just focus on the pitch at hand.”
The Twins shot right back against Bobby Miller. The Dodgers’ right-hander, looking to get off to a good start after struggling in his previous outing, left a 3-1 fastball over the middle of the plate, and Julien made him pay. He hit it 367 feet the opposite way for a game-tying home run.
Paddack struck out the side in order in the second inning. He did a good job mixing in his cutter and changeup, then finished off the inning with 96 mph heat.
“A pitch that I’ve been working my butt off all spring was my cutter,” Paddack said. “And to be able to get outs with it versus both lefties and righties against a lineup like that, it just shows that it’s gonna be a huge weapon for me throughout this season.”
Miller’s command was not nearly as sharp. He walked the first two batters he faced in the second inning. He got out of it, running his fastball up to 99 mph in the process, but instantly got into more trouble in the third.
Julien recorded his second hit of the game, and Correa smacked another single at 104.2 mph. A one-out single from Byron Buxton put the Twins ahead 2-1. It broke an 0-for-33 stretch with runners in scoring position for the Twins, dating back to April 3.
“It’s part of the game,” Buxton said. “We text each other mentally to make sure that you don’t go down those dark roads and get yourself in deeper trenches.”
The Dodgers tied it back up in the fourth inning. Max Muncy pounced on a changeup over the middle of the plate, blasting it 400 feet to make it a 2-2 game.
Miller’s afternoon came to an end after four innings. He wasn’t at his sharpest, but he held the Twins to two runs and struck out four. He threw 73 pitches, 41 of which were strikes.
Paddack, meanwhile, only made it two outs into the fifth. With Ohtani and T. Hernández on base, Minnesota brought in left-hander Kody Funderburk to face Muncy.
Funderburk struck out Muncy. Thus, Paddack finished with a final line of two runs on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings of work.
“Our goal as a team was to go out there and compete,” Paddack said. “That was my game plan with [Christian] Vázquez since pitcher number one.”
And the Dodgers’ missed opportunity almost immediately bit them, as Julien smacked the first pitch he saw from left-hander Alex Vesia over the fence in left field. It was his second opposite-field homer of the day, putting the Twins back up 3-2.
“That’s part of my game,” Julien said of going to the opposite field. “But right now, I don’t try go oppo. I try to stay more square and try to go up the middle, but it just happened that it went oppo.”
With Ohtani on first base and two outs in the seventh, Freeman ripped one into the right field corner. The Twins executed a relay — from left fielder Alex Kirilloff, to shortstop Correa, down to catcher Vázquez — to throw the speedy Ohtani out at the plate. He was initially ruled safe, but it was quickly overturned upon replay review.
“When he called safe, I was kind of like, ‘What?’” Correa said. “Maybe I missed something; I was pretty far. But then when I saw the replay, it was pretty evident.”
Griffin Jax struck out the side in the eighth for the Twins. Then Steven Okert came in for the save in the ninth.
It was just Okert’s 10th save opportunity throughout 10 big league seasons. He allowed a one-out single to Smith, who pinch-hit in the eight-hole. Austin Barnes appeared to hit into a game-ending double play, but that call was overturned as well.
So Okert had to face Betts, who owns the third-highest OPS in all of baseball this season.
He got Betts to pop out.
“I was really hoping it was over before that,” Okert said, “but obviously, it worked out.”
Okert nailed down the first successful save of his career, and Minnesota held on to win 3-2. He relied on an 81 mph slider, which he threw for nearly two-thirds of his pitches.
“I’m not trying to go out there and be a guy that’s 96, 97. That’s not me,” Okert said. “So just staying true to my slider and not trying to overdo it with that.”
The Twins will now head off on their second road trip of the year. They have four games against the Detroit Tigers from April 11-14, then three games against the Baltimore Orioles from April 15-17.
