Twins 5, Pirates 1: Pablo López Extends Scoreless Streak; Matt Wallner Leaves Early in Win

Box Score
Pablo López: 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Home Run: Michael A. Taylor (16)
Top 3 WPA: Pablo López (.331), Griffin Jax (.267), Michael A. Taylor (.251)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

It was a great day to kick off a glorious weekend. The bonus off-days allowed the Twins to re-shuffle their starting rotation, moving Dallas Keuchel to Sunday, as Friday’s start went to Pablo López. López had been excellent in his last two starts, holding both Detroit and Philadelphia scoreless over 13 innings of work. Friday was more of the same.

But it wasn’t easy. Pittsburgh was in no mood to go down easy. They jumped on López often, placing runners on base in every inning he pitched, but that One Big Hit never came; López slipped out of trouble every time. It was far from efficient, but the most important numbers—six innings; no earned runs—were all manager Rocco Baldelli was looking for. 

The start extended López’s scoreless innings streak to 19. Orel Hershiser will remain at peace, but the streak has been impressive, and for a starter who may have gotten unlucky earlier in the year, a new ERA of 3.51 is closer to his true talent. 

The Twins had trouble with Pittsburgh starter Andre Jackson. He wasn’t fully stretched out, but that didn’t appear to matter much to him. The Twins could gain baserunners, but they evidently suffered under a similar hex as their black and gold opponents, as they failed to knock in their brethren, forcing them to trudge through much of the game unable to support their starter. 

“Much of the game,” isn’t all of the game, however, as Minnesota did strike against Jackson eventually. Christian Vázquez softly served a changeup into center field. Perhaps believing in his cambio’s ability to earn weak contact, Jackson threw it again to Michael A. Taylor. He was wrong. Taylor took a mighty hack at a changeup low, but not low enough, and the ball finally landed 410 feet later as Taylor slowed down his effort to a celebratory jog.

The Twins scored again in the 6th, when—following a Matt Wallner double—Donovan Solano cracked a single into center. 

Baseball has a sense of humor, though. López’s ability to escape danger did not translate to Caleb Thielbar. The lefty was shocked to learn that these Pittsburgh batters meant business, and they quickly plated their first run of the ballgame.

Griffin Jax entered. Despite him imploding in catastrophic fashion on Wednesday, turning a potential win into a close loss against a team they really should have beat, Baldelli believed Jax to be the best bet to get out of the jam. It made sense, really. 

And he was perfect. Ke’Bryan Hayes popped out, Jack Suwinski struck out staring at a sweeper, and Henry Davis at least made it look pretty by swinging for his strikeout. Somehow, no runners scored. Such is the life of a reliever. 

The Twins scored a critical insurance run when Jorge Polanco tricked the Pirates into staring at his pop fly, bringing home the fourth run of the game. Kyle Farmer did basically the same thing the following at-bat, but he one-upped his teammate by taking second. The trade-off for such fortune was cruel: Wallner took a fastball off his hands and couldn’t even attempt to talk his way into staying into the game. The team later announced he suffered a right hand contusion. 

Not much happened after that. Well, Pirates pitcher Yohan Ramirez plunked a few batters, causing Baldelli to consternate and scour, but nothing came of it. Jhoan Duran entered to get back on the horse, and he struck out the side. That's quite the horse to get back on. 

Notes:

Carlos Correa's hitting streak ended at nine. He walked twice and struck out twice.

Michael A. Taylor's 16 homers on the year are three off his career-high of 19 set in 2017.

Pablo López's seven strikeouts pushed his season total to 187, tying him with Toronto's Kevin Gausman for the second-highest total in MLB. Spencer Strider leads everyone with 227 strikeouts. 

Post-Game Interview:

What’s Next?
The Twins and Pirates will play the second game of their series on Saturday. Sonny Gray will start for Minnesota. First pitch is at 6:10 PM. 

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