Shane Bieber, a human-buzzsaw hybrid, made everybody in the Twins dugout look lost at the plate, and many — like our dear companion Josh Donaldson — look downright senseless.
In the event that there is anybody on Earth left who doesn’t think about Bieber, they sure as hellfire do now. The mild-mannered 25-year-old set his name up for life during a year ago’s All-Star Game, and his last two exhibitions have made it difficult to not think of him as a Cy Young competitor.
He followed his heavenly season debut against the Royals with a stunningly better presentation against an ever better rival this evening: 8.0 IP, 13 SO, 0 BB, 3 H.
Dislike Bieber did anything new, either. His four-seam fastball was simply so all around found and his curve (named a knuckle bend by Baseball Savant) rattled the Twins simply enough that they couldn’t make sense of him.
At an early stage, the recipe was basic: Get ahead with a fastball, at that point toss a few bends or whatever until they leave with their heads down. At the point when you can utilize your fastball to paint the edges this way (if you don’t mind note that there are three contributes this realistic), it truly doesn’t make a difference what else you do.
By the fifth inning, the Twins thought they had a beat on Bieber and began to assault his fastballs early. Don’t worry about it — he changed things up and went heavier curves right off the bat in the check. Nineteen of his 34 bends originated from the fifth inning ahead, and five of those went ahead the main pitch. Just four altogether were placed in play all game.
With another exceptional beginning added to his repertoire, Bieber tied the Major League Baseball record for strikeouts through the initial two beginnings of a season. He outperformed Nolan Ryan in a similar classification and now sits on the mountain with Karl Spooner.
The Opening Day starter for the Dodgers in 1954, Karl Spooner struck out 27 hitters in his initial two beginnings too. Lamentably, those were the main strikeouts — and begins — he had that year and he was out of baseball barely a year later. Bieber is on target to have more karma than ‘ole Spooner.
