Twins 2, Blue Jays 0: Pablo López Dominates in Postseason Rematch

[Matt Braun]

I think Kevin Gausman is sick of the Twins. 

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Pablo López: 7 ⅔ IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Home Runs: None
Top 3 WPA: Pablo López (.418), José Miranda (.075), Jhoan Durán (.073)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

 

Ten months ago, these two teams faced off under far more special circumstances. Both franchises looked to break their glass ceiling, pushing beyond themselves to become respectable opponents capable of deep playoff runs. On this same mound—with the same hurlers from their opening match—the Twins and Blue Jays played baseball once again, albeit with a different hue coloring their battle. 

Kevin Gausman looked like the same Kevin Gausman we’ve come to expect, a compliment considering his injury woes at the start of the season. His fastball blazed and flashed 97 at times. The splitter? You already know about it. With Samson-like hair—maybe sweatier than usual—and a powerful mound presence, he looked nearly unhittable for the game’s first four frames, only occasionally walking a batter when his command faltered. “Thank God,” he probably thought. “Those bastard Twins won’t get me again.”

Games aren’t four innings long, though, and Minnesota pounced in the fifth. José Miranda cracked a double off the right-center wall, and Carlos Santana ushered him home with a single. Some more action begat a second score when Willi Castro poked a sacrifice fly the other way. 

 

That’s all Pablo López needed. Someone replaced the effective but often inefficient strikeout machine with a modern Carlos Silva; 13 of López’s outs came via the ground ball, as he rode his defense to one of his finest starts of the season. Maybe he took Kevin Costner’s lesson on political systems to heart. Hitter after hitter could do little more than pound the ball directly into the dirt, committing murder on Target Field’s worm population. One of the few times a batter found the skies, he was immediately gunned down at second. So it goes.

 

López didn't relinquish the mound until the 8th when his soft-contact ways proved too powerful; a dying dribbler put runners on 1st and 2nd, forcing Rocco Baldelli to call in Griffin Jax to squash the rebellion, which he did in three pitches. Still, Pablo's line was immaculate: 7 ⅔ innings, 0 earned runs, and 3 strikeouts. Just seven balls left the infield. 

Jhoan Durán entered in the 9th and worked a relatively boring frame to earn the save. A lead-off single was erased with—get this—a groundball double play. Like starter, like reliever. 

Notes: 

• The Twins gained one game on the Royals, who lost to Houston.
• Minnesota remains 3.5 games behind the AL Central-leading Guardians, who beat Pittsburgh tonight. 
• Minnesota remains in the last AL Wild Card spot, 3.5 games ahead of the Red Sox, who also won tonight in 10 innings over the Detroit Tigers. 

Post-Game Interview:

 

What’s Next?
The Twins and Blue Jays play the second game of their series on Saturday, with first pitch coming at 6:10. Former Twin José Berríos will face off against Zebby Matthews. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[thelanges5]

Much needed win! Something to build on. LFG Twins!

[Shaitan]

Roughly 120 pitches in the whole game from the Twins. Good stuff.

[TheLeviathan]

We'd have won this game if we hadn't been Rocco'd by the nationalized Canadien healthcare causing so many roster injuries.

 

Commie.

[stringer bell]

Royce Lewis doesn’t look healthy. Miranda has struggled as has Willi Castro. The lineup that looked so deep a month ago is less than daunting right now. I’m glad they won tonight, but they need reinforcements soon.

[DocBauer]

I'm a conundrum as an eternal optiimist generally speaking, and a "Debbie downer" at times when life or general situations smack me in the face at times. BTW, where does the "downer" expression even come from? I digress.

Time and frustration kept me from watching most of the games on this homestand. Frankly, I was disappointed and PO'd! This is NOT my 2024 Twins! No matter some injuries, this is NOT my Twins! 

I watched most of the game tonight between work and after work. THIS was my 2024 Twins. They had an amazing performance from their SP in Lopez. Jax and Duran only threw a couple of pitches. The offense wasn't near explosive, but they did enough. MOST IMPORTANTLY, NOBODY BLEW THE GAME with silly mistakes!

ALL TEAMS are dealing with injuries, including our Twins. But we've overcome time and again to have a great record/season until this homestand, for reasons I can't begin to understand! YES, the pen has been running out of gas recently. But the lineup suddenly produced little.

A blip? Maybe bad match ups? Putting too much pressure on everyone's shoulders? Just a FEW better pen offerings...just a FEW better AB over the past 7-10 days and this team is in 1st place in the ALC!

Lee should be back in a couple days to help. Buxton might be on a rehab in the next few days. Correa might be back in a 2 weeks. The rotation has been surprisingly solid despite throwing 3 rookies. The FO is TRYING to alter the pen with changes...Henriquez, Blewitt, Winder and Varland soon, maybe Funderburk to help. 

EVERY team has good and bad stretches. UNFORTUNATELY, the pen and the lineup went COLD just as Cleveland FINALLY began to regress to norms and have lost the opportunity to already be in 1st place.

One of the best things that can happen is your #1 STUD SP delivers something special. And your top 2 relievers finish the game with little effort. And don't laugh, but your probably best hitter comes out of a slump with a bloop hit. 

Don't misunderstand, it's only ONE WIN. But you not only end a losing streak with a win, but you also BEGIN a winning streak with one win. 

Despite injuries and a recent losing streak, this team is better than laying down and doing nothing. A couple of arms are going to TRY to help, the rotation has been SURPRISINGLY solid, and the lineup is much better than they've shown even without Buxton and Correa. They got COLD at the same time, they can also get HOT at the same time.

These guys are competitive athletes who have not only the playoffs ahead, but a chance to win the division. It's time to focus, and get "pissed off" and "angry" and use this game to finish the season STRONG!

[DocBauer]

6 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Royce Lewis doesn’t look healthy. Miranda has struggled as has Willi Castro. The lineup that looked so deep a month ago is less than daunting right now. I’m glad they won tonight, but they need reinforcements soon.

Lee says "hello". 😀

[cmoss84]

Great win. But maybe it's time to pull names out of a hat for a game or two for the lineup. Some of those guys could make diamonds out of coal right now. They might just need to breath and have some fun for a minute.

[Danchat]

Lopez picked the right time of the year to get hot! He does seem to struggle in the early months and dominate later in the summer. I'll have to look at his splits as a Marlin to confirm this.

[big dog]

20 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Royce Lewis doesn’t look healthy. Miranda has struggled as has Willi Castro. The lineup that looked so deep a month ago is less than daunting right now. I’m glad they won tonight, but they need reinforcements soon.

Agreed about Lewis- he didn''t look strong running on that grounder in the bottom of the 8th.

[Blyleven2011]

Toronto  out hits us but twins prevail and score 2 runs which is more than we needed ,   Pablo , 7 2/3rd  , captain Jax , 1/3  and Duran , 1 inning all did there jobs ... 

I was hoping captain Jax would pitch the 9th inning , but once again Rocco did his Rocco thing and brought in Duran , a 2 run lead and I was nervous  that the lead was not safe because Duran hasn't  pitched all that great this year but he managed to get 3 outs on 11 pitches , been quite awhile since he threw that few of pitches in an inning  ... 

Toronto did not sting the ball , alot of soft hit hits , wallners throw to second base to nail the runner , was a highlight...

A nice win , but hitting  still not consistent  ...

 

 

[hitterscount]

1 hour ago, DocBauer said:

I'm a conundrum as an eternal optiimist generally speaking, and a "Debbie downer" at times when life or general situations smack me in the face at times. BTW, where does the "downer" expression even come from? I digress.

Time and frustration kept me from watching most of the games on this homestand. Frankly, I was disappointed and PO'd! This is NOT my 2024 Twins! No matter some injuries, this is NOT my Twins! 

I watched most of the game tonight between work and after work. THIS was my 2024 Twins. They had an amazing performance from their SP in Lopez. Jax and Duran only threw a couple of pitches. The offense wasn't near explosive, but they did enough. MOST IMPORTANTLY, NOBODY BLEW THE GAME with silly mistakes!

ALL TEAMS are dealing with injuries, including our Twins. But we've overcome time and again to have a great record/season until this homestand, for reasons I can't begin to understand! YES, the pen has been running out of gas recently. But the lineup suddenly produced little.

A blip? Maybe bad match ups? Putting too much pressure on everyone's shoulders? Just a FEW better pen offerings...just a FEW better AB over the past 7-10 days and this team is in 1st place in the ALC!

Lee should be back in a couple days to help. Buxton might be on a rehab in the next few days. Correa might be back in a 2 weeks. The rotation has been surprisingly solid despite throwing 3 rookies. The FO is TRYING to alter the pen with changes...Henriquez, Blewitt, Winder and Varland soon, maybe Funderburk to help. 

EVERY team has good and bad stretches. UNFORTUNATELY, the pen and the lineup went COLD just as Cleveland FINALLY began to regress to norms and have lost the opportunity to already be in 1st place.

One of the best things that can happen is your #1 STUD SP delivers something special. And your top 2 relievers finish the game with little effort. And don't laugh, but your probably best hitter comes out of a slump with a bloop hit. 

Don't misunderstand, it's only ONE WIN. But you not only end a losing streak with a win, but you also BEGIN a winning streak with one win. 

Despite injuries and a recent losing streak, this team is better than laying down and doing nothing. A couple of arms are going to TRY to help, the rotation has been SURPRISINGLY solid, and the lineup is much better than they've shown even without Buxton and Correa. They got COLD at the same time, they can also get HOT at the same time.

These guys are competitive athletes who have not only the playoffs ahead, but a chance to win the division. It's time to focus, and get "pissed off" and "angry" and use this game to finish the season STRONG!

You lost me at the 15th paragraph 

[hitterscount]

4 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Toronto  out hits us but twins prevail and score 2 runs which is more than we needed ,   Pablo , 7 2/3rd  , captain Jax , 1/3  and Duran , 1 inning all did there jobs ... 

I was hoping captain Jax would pitch the 9th inning , but once again Rocco did his Rocco thing and brought in Duran , a 2 run lead and I was nervous  that the lead was not safe because Duran hasn't  pitched all that great this year but he managed to get 3 outs on 11 pitches , been quite awhile since he threw that few of pitches in an inning  ... 

Toronto did not sting the ball , alot of soft hit hits , wallners throw to second base to nail the runner , was a highlight...

A nice win , but hitting  still not consistent  ...

 

 

Duran should be pitching in save situations, not the 7th inning or up by 5 runs. Rocco may have some responsibility in his erratic performances

[SwainZag]

Not to ruin anyone's weekend but, since June 12th, which is 12 starts, Pablo's like looks like:

75.2 IP, 60H, 15BB, 77K, 2.38 ERA, .218/.268/.316.

That's pretty ace like.   

[mikelink45]

Quote

a "Debbie downer" at times when life or general situations smack me in the face at times. BTW, where does the "downer" expression even come from? I digress.

SNL introduced Debbie in a sketch in 2004 according to Buzzfeed.  

I have a hard time being down when the number one guy pitches a great game and gets into the 8th - why pull him then?  This give the BP almost a night off.  Why use two RP?  

Nice to see Miranda with a key hit.  

Should Lewis have gotten a rehab?

Will Lee make a difference?

Can Zebby be what we hoped Berrios would become (for us)?

[CRF]

Nice win and it's great to break the losing streak, but we have to get the bats going. We're not going to win a whole lot of games with 4 hits and only scoring 2 runs. Very good to see Pablo pitching like he's capable of too. 

[stringer bell]

Luis Arraez might well win his third batting title this year, but the Twins have the better player in Pablo López. Pablo's ERA is still a bit over 4, but he's giving the quality and the innings now when the Twins need it desperately. Is there any question who starts Game One of a possible playoff series for the Twins?

[Whitey333]

Great win Lopez.  Rest of team meh!  We need to start some serious winning in September.  It's playoff push time

[Vanimal46]

Pablo is absolutely dialed in. Lewis is clearly playing with an injury. A 25 year old doesn’t hobble around the field like a 45 year old unless something is wrong. Julien’s face (and 4 letter word heard on the mic in the 8th inning) tells it all… a man with no confidence in his ability. 

Good win though and let’s get another one tonight! 

[Doctor Gast]

10 hours ago, Danchat said:

Lopez picked the right time of the year to get hot! He does seem to struggle in the early months and dominate later in the summer. I'll have to look at his splits as a Marlin to confirm this.

With the Twins, Lopez seems to go through a lot of adjustments early in the season but once he makes those adjustments he seems to be unstoppable. I'm not sure what his pitching patterns were in MIA. The defense was good tonite! The Twins have been a big disappointment these last few series, Hope TOR will give us a well-needed reprieve & we gain some ground on CLE, but CLE is facing PIT. So we need to do well here to stay with CLE.

[Schmoeman5]

9 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Lee says "hello". 😀

Lee says hello. What does that mean? I see all this Lee this and Lee that. What did Lee do when he was playing to garner all this hoopla? He wasn't that great defensively.  I remember a walk off error. He wasn't tearing the cover off the ball. Oh that's right. His dad's a coach. I've heard that as many times as I've heard Keplers parents were ballet dancers. 

[LambchoP]

Good game from Pablo, heck of a streak he's on. It looks like he made a real adjustment. Sacrificing a ton of strikeouts for quicker ground outs so he can go deeper into games. Rocco will take that everyday. I was so mad, yet totally unsurprised to see the 0-29 Margot pinch hit for Larnach. Why does he keep putting him out there, Larnach was a much better option, lefty or no. Plus, Margot is a TERRIBLE late game defensive sub. He's a butcher out there, which is why I'd like to see if Keirsey can outperform him. Wouldn't take much. Lewis and Castro look lost at the plate. That's all we need is for one of them to go down now too. The lineup is looking as burnt out as the bullpen lately. The only part of the team looking good now is the rotation, and how long can that last?

[DJL44]

10 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I’m glad they won tonight, but they need reinforcements soon.

They'll get two minor leaguers tomorrow but adding to the bottom isn't what they need.

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Can Zebby be what we hoped Berrios would become (for us)?

Why does every prospect have to become an All-Star to be successful? I would be satisifed if Zebby could be an average innings eater.

[chinmusic]

3 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Is there any question who starts Game One of a possible playoff series for the Twins?

Nope. Not unless they're fighting for a playoff spot in the final game of the season. He was great last night. I was unable to watch live, as mlbTV  blacks out all  Jays games for me, so I was listening to radio broadcasts, I had to laugh when Duran came in for the 9th, and  Atteberry said " he'll be facing the heart of the lineup". I'm thinking, what heart?... we're talking Guerrero , period. 

Despite the Jays lineup, it was a dominant outing for Lopez.

[joefish]

10 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Toronto  out hits us but twins prevail and score 2 runs which is more than we needed ,   Pablo , 7 2/3rd  , captain Jax , 1/3  and Duran , 1 inning all did there jobs ... 

I was hoping captain Jax would pitch the 9th inning , but once again Rocco did his Rocco thing and brought in Duran , a 2 run lead and I was nervous  that the lead was not safe because Duran hasn't  pitched all that great this year but he managed to get 3 outs on 11 pitches , been quite awhile since he threw that few of pitches in an inning  ... 

Toronto did not sting the ball , alot of soft hit hits , wallners throw to second base to nail the runner , was a highlight...

A nice win , but hitting  still not consistent  ...

 

 

Yes on Jax finishing the game. I was hoping for that too. 

[JD-TWINS]

11 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Royce Lewis doesn’t look healthy. Miranda has struggled as has Willi Castro. The lineup that looked so deep a month ago is less than daunting right now. I’m glad they won tonight, but they need reinforcements soon.

Miranda had 3 different doubles/triples robbed from him in the previous series - all 3 circus catches - he hit the ball like a rocket off the wall last night. Can’t hit .325 forever. He seems stable to me - pops up sometimes when hoping for/expecting a hit but who doesn’t.

Castro had a really good AB and ended up 4-5 feet short of an opposite field HR on his sac fly. He has regressed back to what he is - a .260 hitter with decent occasional pop. Good speed - good arm - multi dimensional on defense.

Royce Lewis looks like he doesn’t feel comfortable really going hard to first on ground balls. Concerning, as you point out! Looked OK charging ball in defense but seems tentative running bases - scary.

Jeffers - Larnach - Santana - Julien are the guys that need to help keep things afloat in my mind. Couple of those guys per game. CC & Byron are certainly missed on the depth front!

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

They'll get two minor leaguers tomorrow but adding to the bottom isn't what they need.

Most likely Lee for the position player. Technically, he is on a rehab assignment, so he's not a minor leaguer. As far as the pitcher--Winder and Varland would be the obvious candidates to add, perhaps both with either Tonkin or Henriquez being sent down or DFA'd.

[JD-TWINS]

Kepler played defense in 9th so he must be able to run - I guess they used Wallner in Right to get Miranda & Larnach both in the line-up. All worked out but Max v. RH pitching seems like it should be status quo after a day off - right?

[joefish]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

With the Twins, Lopez seems to go through a lot of adjustments early in the season but once he makes those adjustments he seems to be unstoppable. I'm not sure what his pitching patterns were in MIA. The defense was good tonite! The Twins have been a big disappointment these last few series, Hope TOR will give us a well-needed reprieve & we gain some ground on CLE, but CLE is facing PIT. So we need to do well here to stay with CLE.

Fewer strike outs helps keep the defense on its toes. Good for the defense. Good for Pablo to find another way to win.