Twins’ Simeon Woods Richardson impresses near his hometown, but only for five innings

HOUSTON — Just a short drive from where he grew up, Simeon Woods Richardson pitched perhaps his best start of the season in front of family and friends on Sunday.

But he sure didn’t spend much time with them.

Woods Richardson, a native of Houston suburb Sugar Land, gave up only one hit, one walk and zero runs during a game the Twins eventually lost to the Astros 2-1 in 10 innings. And here’s the odd-looking stat: He threw only 53 pitches and was pulled after only five innings.

“Being ahead in the count was one of the things I tried to work on during the week. It worked out today,” said Woods Richardson, who needed only seven pitches to retire the Astros in the first inning, eight in the third and five in a three-minute-long fourth. “I was trying to be efficient, man. The best thing you can do as a pitcher is get your team back in [the dugout], swinging.”

He made a good impression, safe to say, after giving up seven runs in 4 ⅔ innings to Texas last week in his first game back following a brief demotion to Class AAA St. Paul.

“It was a great outing for him. He threw a ton of strikes,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “They were swinging. I mean, they were coming out of their shoes trying to swing at every strike they saw, and he got a lot of weak contact.”

Woods Richardson’s day ended early, though, because the Twins prefer not to let their youngest starters face opposing hitters three times in a game, if they can help it. And with an off day Monday and only a one-run lead, Baldelli and pitching coach Pete Maki believed their mostly well-rested bullpen was better equipped to finish out the final four innings.

It didn’t work out, but the Woods and Richardsons in the crowd — around 30 this year, the pitcher said, a far cry from the near-100 who attended when he pitched here last June — probably didn’t mind much.

Still, 30 is a lot of tickets. Did Woods Richardson pay for them?

“No. No,” he said. “I learned that last year.”

Louie Varland pitched the seventh and eighth innings Sunday and successfully protected the Twins’ 1-0 lead despite putting the leadoff runner on base in both.

He hit the first batter he faced, Jose Altuve, in the seventh, but quickly erased him with a double play. He gave up a single to Cam Smith to open the eighth, and the Astros sacrificed him to second base. But a pair of ground balls ended that threat with Smith stranded on third.

There was something unusual, though: The two-inning appearance. It’s the second time Varland has pitched more than one inning this year; the other came May 25 against the Royals, when he threw three pitches to end the seventh inning, then pitched the eighth. And it’s the first time all season that Baldelli has asked a pitcher to get more than three outs with a lead of three runs or fewer.

 It might not be the last time, either.

“It’s something that he can occasionally do, based on how much he’s been throwing, based on the state of the bullpen, who’s available for what,” Baldelli said of the former starting pitcher. “I wouldn’t say you’re going to see that for a majority of his outings, but it’s always something that he has and we have in our back pockets if we need it.”

• Byron Buxton was in the original starting lineup, but the center fielder, who suffered a badly bruised elbow when he was hit by a pitch Saturday, was eventually scratched. “I can’t tell you he’s feeling stupendous,” Baldelli said of Buxton, who was presented with a pair of Father’s Day cleats his sons had decorated for him before the game by the Twins’ staff. “We put a lineup out there, and if we have to amend it, we do.”