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On a night when the Twins had their ace on the mound and a sense of urgency in their dugout, fans were left with a worst-case scenario. By the end of the evening, Pablo López was getting evaluated for an injury and the Twins had lost a game to a division rival in which their pitchers had not surrendered an earned run. Here's how the farce unfolded.
Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Pablo López: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K ( 78 Pitches, 50 Strikes, 64%)
Home Runs: None
Bottom 3 WPA: Griffin Jax (-.219), Carlos Correa (-.167), Byron Buxton (-.141)
Win Probability Chart (via Fangraphs)
The Twins came into Tuesday night's matchup with the rival Royals in need of something positive. With their stopper on the mound, the opportunity to right the ship depended on the lineup's ability to figure out any semblance of an offense against a rare left-handed starter in Cole Ragans. Rocco Baldelli and Twins Territory both hoped that a change in the lineup would bring a change in the results, with only Trevor Larnach and Edouard Julien representing the Twins left-handed bats to start the game.
Approaching a Lefty
The first wave of Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers, and Larnach proved to be no match for Ragans. Luckily, neither did the top of the Royals lineup against Ló. Carlos Correa did make his presence known in the clean-up spot, however, by blasting a leadoff double to the wall to start the second inning. Jose Miranda, Ty France, and Julien couldn't advance Correa any further, however, and the first threat of the game felt like more of the same from the Twins in April. López continued to match Ragans pitch for pitch, setting the Royals down in order in the second. After some continued chirping from Baldelli toward home plate umpire Nick Mahrley. Mahrley chirped back, had an odd call on a phantom foul ball, missed a ball four to Byron Buxton (which prevented a Twins baserunner)—and then it all mercifully ended, before anyone could embarass themselves any further.
Paging Brooks Lee...
Mickey Gasper got the call at second base again tonight, and in the bottom of the fourth inning, that proved to be problematic for Lopez's shutout. After surrendering a double to phenom Bobby Witt Jr. with one out, Lopez looked to escape trouble by inducing an easy grounder by Vinnie Pasquantino to Gasper. After what appeared to be four bobbles, Gasper couldn't get Pasquantino at first. Salvador Perez made the error count by exploiting the Twins' infield defense yet again, hitting a grounder that forced Miranda to dive at third and left Gasper unable to make the turn for a double play. While the play wasn't an error, it was Perez not getting doubled up on a ground ball. With Witt scoring the game's first run, López looked flustered, as he overthrew Ty France on what should have been out number three. Luckily, the Royals were only able to convert the one unearned run in the inning, but the continued struggles in the Twins infield were impossible to ignore.
Striking Back, and Leaving Hurt
France took his frustrations out on a Ragans changeup in the top of the fifth, crushing a double down the left field line with one out in the inning. Julien then took a first-pitch curveball off his name plate to put runners at first and second, and new Twins legend Harrison Bader found a way to hit a ball to the fence, off of Mark Canha's wrist, for a game-tying "single." Julien had to hold, so runners were still at first and second for Gasper. Then Buxton. Then the dugout. Another chance (largely) wasted.
López returned for the bottom of the fifth, and things started innocently enough, with two quick outs. Kyle Isbel started the horrors to come with a single. Jonathan India walked. On the last pitch, which sailed inside to India, López grimaced. Pete Maki interpreted that as frustration and came to the mound to settle down the Twins ace. As Maki walked back to the dugout after a good pep talk, Correa motioned for the training staff, because López was hurt.
How did Maki miss this? How bad is it? Stay tuned, Twins Territory, for what could be the story of the start of the 2025 season. (Spoiler alert: It's a tragedy, not a comedy, like we first assumed).
As the Sands Through the Hourglass...
Cole Sands came in with two outs, runners at first and second, and Witt at the plate. After a lengthy delay to warm up from scratch, Sands faced a daunting task. He got strike one without much of a threat, but four straight balls loaded the bases for the dangerous Pasquantino. What ensued was a 10-pitch marathon that impacted blood pressures for a five-state region, but what Royals fans thought was a grand slam dropped harmlessly in Bader's glove for out number three. Breathe with me.
The middle innings continued, and the ensuing hour of baseball left the scoreboard unscathed. Jorge Alcala and Danny Coulombe got the call for the sixth and seventh innings, and they did their jobs admirably. The Twins scattered some baserunners in each inning, but failed to push the go-ahead run across.
Sombreros and Rally-Killers
The eighth inning began with Buxton's putting on the Golden Sombrero for the first out. Then Jeffers and Larnach laced a couple of singles together and started a rally against Royals reliever John Schreiber. Unfortunately, the dreaded 6-4-3 came off of Correa's bat to end the threat.
Griffin Jax got the bottom of the eighth for the Twins (see inverse of Sunday's usage), and he got the first out easily. He was about to get the daunting Witt just as easily after a comebacker to the mound, only to airmail the toss into right field foul territory. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.
Witt thus danced around at third base, with Pasquantino at the plate, and the slugging first baseman did just enough to plate the go-ahead run with a dribbler up the first base line. The Twins were the only team with an earned run, but they still found themselves down 2-1 heading into the ninth.
The ninth brought nothing but more of the same for the Twins offense. An easy flyout from Matt Wallner and groundouts from France and Julien ended the night as quietly as it had begun.
What’s Next: Joe Ryan (0-1, 4.50 ERA) looks to claim his first win of the season against fellow righty Seth Lugo (0-1, 3.27 ERA) in the series finale. Must-win games can't happen in April baseball, but whatever else rests one notch below that category is what Wednesday's contest should be. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm CDT.
Postgame Interviews:
Bullpen Usage Chart:
| FRI | SAT | SUN | MON | TUE | TOT | |
| Blewett | 15 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 46 |
| Alcalá | 0 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 39 |
| Sands | 0 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 15 | 36 |
| Varland | 0 | 16 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 31 |
| Jax | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 12 | 29 |
| Topa | 0 | 17 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 27 |
| Durán | 0 | 8 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Coulombe | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 13 | 21 |
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