DETROIT — The bullpen door was already open in left field, and left-handed reliever Jovani Moran was several steps down the warning lane and ready to jog to the mound with two outs in the fifth inning.
Three hundred feet away, Kenta Maeda had no intention of abandoning the hill amid a two-runner backlog at base. He doesn’t like to push back but was completely won over when he insisted on benching coach Jayce Tingler: ‘I’ve got him. I have him. I have him.”
A confused Moran reversed, and four throws later, Maeda’s splinter dove under Zach McKinstry’s bat for a third time, ending the veteran’s return to the major leagues on his own terms. Maeda clinched his first win since Tommy John’s surgery, going through five innings without a score to set up Minnesota’s 4-1 win over the Tigers on Friday at Comerica Park. It was the Twins’ third straight win, pushing them back to over .500 points.
“I’m just really happy to get that first W,” Maeda said through interpreter Dai Sekizaki. “It really has a significant meaning. If anything, I think mentally I’m back to the Kenta Maeda everyone knows. Me.” I think I can excel from here.”
That final out – after which he yelled twice in the air – marked Maeda’s eighth strikeout of the night, capping an 83 pitch out in which he only allowed three singles and two walks, taking his fastball speed back to 90.4 miles per hour average rose and his slider and splitter dive away from bats. It was his first win and his first goalless appearance since August 14, 2021.
In the 22 1/2 months since, his return to the majors following Tommy John’s surgery has been far from smooth. Barely two weeks into what he hoped would be a normal 2023 season, the Twins delayed Maeda’s third start by a few days to deal with lingering fatigue in his throwing arm. At the next start, he hit a 111.6 mph comebacker in the ankle, shortening the stakes.
Miraculously, he didn’t need an additional timeout because of the incident — but after allowing the Yankees ten runs in three innings on April 26, the Twins diagnosed him with a right tricep strain, which led to him playing 51 more games during that time The Minnesota rotation continued to thrive in his absence.
All of which made this victory all the more meaningful.
“I think this win took a lot off my shoulders,” said Maeda.
While Maeda had outwardly displayed confidence after completing his rehab stint at Triple-A St. Paul, he also admitted after Friday’s performance that he was nervous in the first inning when Detroit’s first two hitters hit base with a walk and a single achieved . At this point, he still wasn’t sure if he was actually fully back.
“I had — not doubts, just uncertainty about whether I would be able to pitch well, pitch healthy and stuff like that,” Maeda said.
Getting Javier Báez to land in an innings-ending 6-4-3 doubleplay finally set the tone for him—yes, he could still do that; Yes, he is still Kenta Maeda. It helped that the Twins’ offense provided him with immediate support from home throws from Royce Lewis and Max Kepler, giving him an early 3-0 lead.
“He’s really an experienced, very intelligent pitcher who has a lot of different ways of getting the outs he needs to get through an inning,” said manager Rocco Baldelli, who was kicked out in the second inning for failing to had issued a balk call It should have been thought against Detroit starter Joey Wentz. “I found the command solid today. I thought we got everything we hoped for and expected, especially for a first return flight.”
Maeda returned to the mound to hit five of Detroit’s next seven hitters, and he sailed through the middle innings, maintaining his fastball speed in the 90–91 mph range until he hit the von Miguel threw a Cabrera single and a Jake Rogers walk.
When the Gemini decision maker goes to the hill, the decision has usually already been made. That wasn’t the case on Friday, as Maeda had shown everyone – Baldelli, Tingler, even himself – enough to believe he could reach the final.
“We have great confidence,” said Tingler, who acted as acting manager after Baldelli’s ouster. “He’s gotten a lot of outs in this league.”