Dallas Keuchel’s return to majors is a good one for Twins

Dallas Keuchel’s road back to the majors made its biggest stop on Sunday when the veteran left-hander started a big league game for the first time in nearly a year.

Keuchel didn’t get the decision in his first start since Sept. 2, 2022 — or provide the biggest bang, which belonged to Matt Wallner after his two-run, walk-off homer in the ninth. But Keuchel, 35, was a big reason the Twins swept the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 5-3 victory.

“It was really nice. I just kinda wanted to start off on the right foot,” Keuchel said.

Keuchel gave up eight hits and walked two in five innings, and didn’t strike out a single batter. But he left the game with a 1-0 deficit after stranding runners at second and third to end the fifth.

The Diamondbacks didn’t hit many balls hard against Keuchel, their lone run off him scored on Tommy Pham’s soft grounder to second in the fifth, which the Twins couldn’t turn into a double play.

Throwing an assortment of offspeed pitches — his fastball was clocked mostly at 87 mph — Keuchel was getting such soft contact from Arizona hitters that his defenders had to charge the ball on most plays.

“The pitches he’s throwing are different than most guys in the big leagues, and you get different kinds of swings because of it,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He jammed guys, got guys to hit it off the cap, balls are spinning, you see everything when he’s out there on the mound. So you’ve got to be ready for basically everything, and our guys were.”

The 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner in Houston, Keuchel was recovering from a lingering back issue when he struggled through his worst major league season in 2022. In his last two starts, for Texas, he surrendered a combined 14 earned runs on 18 hits and four walks in losses to Detroit and Boston.

Keuchel has never been a hard thrower, so regaining velocity was never an issue, he said, and after working with trainers at Driveline baseball near his home in Arizona, he signed a minor league deal with the Twins and made six increasingly effective starts for St. Paul. The day before he was called up — after Joe Ryan was placed on the 15-day IL with a groin injury — Keuchel was named the International League Player of the Month.

“I was happy with it … but at the same time, I’d like to be a little more crisp with two strikes or kinda put away situations,” he said of Sunday’s start. “I know we got some ground balls, but at the same time, there was gonna be some punch-outs needed in certain situations moving forward, rather than trying to rely on a double-play early.

“But no complaints. I’m not gonna sit here and be upset.”

Leading off

The Twins might have found their daily double with Eduoard Julien and Carlos Correa.

After using Correa as the leadoff hitter from June 30-Aug. 4, the Twins put Edouard Julien up top for the last two games — with Correa batting fourth on Saturday and second for Sunday’s 5-3 victory over Arizona.

Correa was 1 for 4 on Sunday but hit a big, two-out, two-run single in the sixth inning. In the past two games combined, Julien was 4 for 6 with three walks and three runs scored from the leadoff spot.

“I’m a big boy; I don’t really care where I hit,” Julien said. “Same approach every time: I just try to get on base.”

In 22 games as the Twins’ leadoff hitter this season, Julien is hitting .329 (27 for 82) with 13 walks and 16 runs scored, two homers and four RBIs.

On Sunday, he was 1 for 1 with two walks against Arizona ace Zac Gallen, overall 1 for 1 with three walks and a run scored.

“He’s been so good for us,” Baldelli said. “There’s going to be many downs and ups, but having him at the top of the order, knowing you’re going to get a good amount of good at-bats, that’s where he belongs right now.”

Briefly

The Twins optioned Jovani Moran to Triple-A St. Paul on Sunday and replaced him on the active roster with fellow lefty Brent Headrick. Moran’s walks-per-inning rate of 5.7 leads the team, two more than second–place Jhoan Duran. … Strikeouts have always been a part of Joey Gallo’s game, but the big outfielder/first baseman is really struggling. Although his 17 home runs are one behind team leader Max Kepler, Gallo is hitting .174 with a .289 on-base percentage. In his last six games, he was 1 for 12 with two walks and eight strikeouts.