Rookie Berrios: ‘I want to be dominant’

NEW YORK — When Jose Berrios got the final out of the first inning Friday night, he returned to the Twins’ dugout to find manager Paul Molitor waiting for him.

“It might not be the prettiest zero you’ll ever put up,” Molitor told his young right-hander. “But it’s a zero.”

Berrios had walked the bases loaded, but he got out of it by getting Mets second baseman T.J. Rivera to fly out to center field.

For a 22-year-old whose struggles have been acute early in games, the Twins would like to think that’s progress. Even in Minnesota’s 3-0 loss to New York, on a night when Berrios pitched just four innings and gave up back-to-back home runs to Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera, there was that small sign of improvement.

The Twins believe in Berrios, despite too many walks, too many hits, too many home runs and an ERA that sits at 8.88 through the first 12 starts of his Major League career. They’ve talked to him and worked with him, and they still believe it’s a matter of more time and more work to get the success they believe is there.

Berrios believes, too, and that’s why he wasn’t fully ready to accept Molitor’s message.

“I don’t want it to just be a zero,” he said through an interpreter, after the loss. “I want to be …

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