Tyler Glasnow strikes out 14 as Dodgers defeat the Twins

Tyler Glasnow pitches in the first inning Tuesday.

Staff Writer

April 9, 2024 Updated 8:45 PM PT

MINNEAPOLIS — Ever since he was a kid, Tyler Glasnow has had a habit of counting strikeouts in his head.

“I always do,” he said with a smile. “I’d lie if I said I didn’t.”

And in a 6-3 Dodgers win over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, his tally quickly climbed to nearly uncharted levels.

In an overpowering performance that ended after seven scoreless innings, Glasnow matched his career-high with 14 strikeouts on a clear night at Target Field, flashing his full array of pitches — and tantalizing front-line potential — in his best start yet as the ace of the Dodgers rotation.

When the Dodgers traded for, then immediately struck a $136.5-million extension with, Glasnow this offseason, they did so with nights like Tuesday in mind.

Too often in recent seasons, amid injuries to Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and other talented members of the Dodgers’ pitching staff, the team lacked a clear ace to carry its pitching staff.

This past offseason, the front office was determined to finally fill the void.

And, despite his own checkered history health-wise, the 30-year-old Glasnow was their preferred solution.

“Betting on Tyler, the person and competitor, we felt very good about it,” general manager Brandon Gomes said after the Dodgers acquired the right-hander from the Tampa Bay Rays in December.

Four months later, the Dodgers (10-4) named Glasnow their opening-day starter. He began his season with three decent performances, going 2-0 with a 3.18 ERA.

But, ahead of his matchup with the offensively slumping Twins at Target Field, both Glasnow and team officials were expecting another level from the tall, lanky right-hander.

“He’s obviously a really talented pitcher, really competing well,” manager Dave Roberts said pregame. “I think that what we haven’t seen is, from start to finish, that he’s been synced up with his delivery.”

Tuesday night, they finally did.

Glasnow’s game started — fittingly — with a strikeout, dotting a 97-mph fastball on the inside corner to Edouard Julien.

Each of his next five strikeouts also came via the heater, like the elevated four-seamer he blew past Byron Buxton in the second, or an off-the-plate bullet Carlos Correa helplessly waved at in the fifth.

“That’s exactly what we were looking for,” Roberts said afterward. “Tonight, he had complete control of the game … That was as dominant as we’ve seen him all year.”

If not for a line-drive double by rookie Austin Martin in the bottom of the third, which grazed off the glove of a diving James Outman in center field, Glasnow might have been working on a no-hit bid (the Twins’ only other two knocks against Glasnow didn’t come until the sixth and seventh innings).

Still, facing a Twins lineup that entered the night with an MLB-worst .175 batting average, the highly deceptive and precisely commanded stuff that Glasnow was throwing looked unhittable all the same.

“I felt just a lot more balanced today … just being able to throw more strikes and get ahead of guys,” Glasnow said, having pounded the zone with 65 of his 88 pitches.

“Everything was just through the catcher as opposed to going right to left. I think when I’m able to do that, I can pitch off of my heater with every other [pitch]. Everything stays in the zone and I can just kind of like rip it where I want to.”

Indeed, after establishing his fastball earlier, Glasnow mixed in more of his off-speed pitches his second and third times through the Twins’ overmatched lineup.

Alex Kirilloff and Buxton both fanned on sliders in back-to-back at-bats during the fourth inning — one of six consecutive strikeouts Glasnow racked up in the middle of his outing.

Jose Miranda and Matt Wallner went down on curveballs in the fifth.

“We were just focusing on his strengths, doing what he does really well,” catcher Will Smith told SportsNet LA postgame, after supporting his battery mate with a three-run home run in the fifth inning, following the three-run blast from Outman in the fourth that opened the scoring.

“He was really controlling his slider and his curveball and just making it really tough on them. He continued to execute pitches. That was really fun.”

In a closer game, or a different era of pitcher workload management, Glasnow might have had the chance to go the distance.

By the end of the seventh inning, which concluded on punchouts of Miranda and Wallner again, giving Glasnow his third career game of 14 strikeouts, he had thrown only 88 pitches.

Since MLB started tracking pitch counts in 1988, no starter had racked up that many Ks in an outing of fewer than 90 pitches.

The Dodgers, however, didn’t acquire Glasnow so he could pitch nine innings in an early-April blowout. They envision him anchoring their pitching staff through a deep October run.

So, after watching Glasnow exhaust every tantalizing weapon in his highly touted arsenal, Roberts let his new ace relax for the night’s final couple of innings.

Even without going the full nine frames, he’d already pitched a game of complete dominance.