Gavin

Williams

The two sides will now complete Monday’s game, led 2-1 by Minnesota in the fourth, on Wednesday ahead of Wednesday’s regularly scheduled game. Tuesday’s game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sept. 20. It’ll be interesting to see how the teams go about playing out Monday’s game now. Tonight’s scheduled starters, Gavin Williams and Chris Paddack, could both be in the mix for that one. We imagine Wednesday’s scheduled starters, Tanner Bibee and Joe Ryan, will still start their regular games.

Williams struck out six. He gave up a homer to Sal Frelick on a ball that would have left only eight of the 30 ballparks, according to Statcast. Williams, who is 3-2 with a 4.29 ERA for the season, will pitch in Minnesota next time out.

Williams allowed four hits and also walked four. It’s the first time he’s made a start without allowing a run since he did so twice against the Tigers last July. The victory makes him 3-2 with a 4.38 ERA and a 45/23 K/BB in 37 innings. He’d a decent play with a home start against the Brewers coming up next week.

Williams served up a solo homer to Bo Bichette on his first pitch of the game. He somehow allowed just one more run in through four inefficient innings despite giving up six more hits and five walks. Nine strikeouts help. Williams would be done after four innings at 100 pitches, just 59 for strikes. The 25-year-old right-hander will take a 5.06 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, and a 37/19 K/BB ratio across 32 innings into a start against the Phillies in Cleveland on Friday.

Williams indicated afterwards that he would have preferred to keep going. He didn’t have much luck on a few of the singles he gave up, and while the homer he allowed was hit 403 feet to center, it would have left only 10 ballparks. Williams has been alternating good starts and bad ones on his way to a 2-2 record and a 5.14 ERA, so that means he’ll be better next time out in Toronto, right?

Definitely the best outing of the year to date for Williams. He did hold the White Sox to one run 11 days ago, but it was the White Sox and he threw only five innings then. Williams topped out at 99.6 mph, struck out eight and produced 21 whiffs tonight. He’ll take a 2-1 record and a 4.15 ERA into his next start versus the Red Sox.

The early season woes continued for Williams who again did not have his best stuff in this one. Truthfully, he was lucky to get out of this outing with just those four runs. Ironically, all four of those runs came on one swing when Jackson Holiday blasted a grand slam. Otherwise, the Orioles made 12 hard-hit outs and Williams did not have many solutions as they attacked him all game. Baltimore stacked their lineup with six of nine left-handed batters and Williams’ response was a heavy dose of fastballs, which forced just three swings-and-misses. Past that, he tried to sneak some sweepers by them too so as to not get predictable with just his fastball and curveball. Most sweepers were noncompetitive and Holliday’s home run came on the only one that actually wound up in the zone through his first five innings of work. Things will not get easier for him either, as he’s scheduled to face the Yankees next time out.

It came against a team that might not win 50 games, but Williams had his best start of the season Thursday. He gave up just three hits while initiating 16 swings and misses before leaving. While it’s a solid outing, it’s another one where he wasn’t particularly efficient; as he needed 94 pitches just to qualify for a win. Williams has the stuff to be a top-of-the-rotation starter, but the 25-year-old still has some things to work on. He’ll be back on the bump against the Orioles next week.

That’s now back-to-back inefficient starts by Williams to start his season. He faced 18 batters in his three innings of work and never looked comfortable on the mound. Walks were pervasive and it felt like he was battling in every at-bat. His stuff was still excellent and will always be his saving grace, but Williams needs to find a way to be less predictable as it became clear he was starting all of his at-bats with fastballs before trying to put hitters away with sweepers. He has a golden opportunity to get back on track in his next scheduled start against the lowly White Sox.

He left with a one-run lead, but that was blown by Paul Sewald in the seventh. Williams topped out at 99.5 mph today, but he settled for just six missed swings and two strikeouts. That’s a bit of a letdown from a guy who struck out 26 in 17 1/3 innings this spring. Williams will face the Angels next.