Baltimore Orioles at Minnesota Twins

When the Twins acquired Dean Kremer from the Orioles prior to last week’s Trade Deadline, it did not grab headlines, thanks largely to his inflated ERA following a couple of rough starts in an injury-interrupted season. If the Kremer who has made two starts for Minnesota so far is what they’re going to have going forward, however, then the Twins' front office made one of the moves of the year in acquiring him. Kremer was absolutely brilliant in his first home start with the Twins, shutting down his former mates over seven superb innings as Minnesota shook off a frustrating road trip with a 9-5 win in the opener of a three-game series. Once again he leaned into his four-seam fastball, throwing six different pitches to keep a team of very familiar opponents off balance all night. He induced 14 swinging strikes, his most since April, and was simply unthreatened for just about the entire game. Kremer was one of baseball's most reliable starters from 2022-25, and early returns suggest he could quickly regain that status. “I would like to be like this every time,” Kremer said. “That would be the goal. But I’m just going out there and competing.” It was the second straight start that Kremer threw his four-seam fastball more than he had on average earlier this year. Between that and what he said were the beginning of some other tweaks given to him by the Twins’ pitching development department, Kremer looked like much more than a depth piece, and rather like a potentially significant addition to the Twins’ rotation as they pursue a playoff spot. “Dean’s been a really good pitcher,” said catcher Ryan Jeffers. “He’s had really good moments. It hasn’t gone his way this year. And you look at what he did today, I think that’s what we believed that he was and he can keep being that person.”