Zebby Matthews pitches Twins past Marlins 9-1 with 7 shutout innings in his season debut

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Zebby Matthews threw seven scoreless innings in his season debut on Thursday, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Miami Marlins 9-1 to win consecutive series for the first time in a month.

Matthews, who was the last cut from the rotation competition at the end of spring training, was promoted from Triple-A to help manage workloads by pushing the other starters back. The right-hander pitched like he deserves to stay with just four hits and one walk allowed over 83 pitches. He had five strikeouts.

Austin Martin and Josh Bell had two-run doubles in a five-run second inning against Marlins starter Braxton Garrett, spoiling his first major league appearance in nearly two years.

Martin and James Outman each had two hits, a walk and three RBIs for the Twins, who have won four of their last five games after a 5-16 stretch from April 15 through May 8. They took two of three at Cleveland last weekend and two of three from Miami to start a nine-game homestand this week.

Garrett got only four outs, after he was called up from Triple-A to replace injured rookie Robby Snelling in the rotation. He allowed five runs on four hits and five walks, though after loading the bases to start the game he finished the first inning with three straight strikeouts.

The seventh pick in the 2016 draft, Garrett made his major league debut in 2020. After an excellent 2023 season with a 3.66 ERA over 30 starts, the left-hander was limited in 2024 by forearm trouble before the elbow injury that led to offseason surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament.

Miami returns home to face Tampa Bay on Friday. Janson Junk pitches for the Marlins, opposite Jesse Scholtens for the Rays.

Minnesota hosts Milwaukee on Friday. Joe Ryan pitches for the Twins. The Brewers have not named a starter.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB