López lifts scoreless streak to 19 frames in Twins' win

MINNEAPOLIS -- In the early years of Pablo López’s career, the problem was that he couldn’t stay healthy. Then, last season, when he did make all of his starts, the criticism was that his performance fell off in the second half as the workload caught up to him.

But as the 2023 season nears its stretch run, the Twins’ Opening Day starter looks like he’s just started to find his best form.

López ducked and weaved through plenty of traffic on Friday night against the Pirates at Target Field, but he made his pressure pitches in the big spots -- and six frames later, he’d extended his scoreless innings streak to a career-best 19 innings to prime a 5-1 victory over Pittsburgh that helped extend Minnesota’s lead in the American League Central to five games.

“Last year, my goal was to stay healthy all of the season,” López said. “A lot of new territory for me last year. A lot of innings, pitching deep into the season. And I think I was able to realize last year, I know I can handle an entire season. Now the next step is handling an entire season with consistent, good results.”

The right-hander has allowed one earned run in four August outings -- and that came in the sixth inning of his Aug. 1 start in St. Louis. After that, López blanked the Tigers for seven innings and stymied a red-hot Phillies offense for six scoreless frames before stranding eight baserunners in six frames against the Pirates.

López is the first Twins starter (non-opener) to throw three consecutive scoreless starts since Jake Odorizzi in 2019. His seven strikeouts gave him 187 for the season, moving him into a tie with Toronto’s Kevin Gausman for the AL lead. And in allowing six hits and two walks in six frames, López has a sparkling 27 strikeouts and only three walks in 25 innings this month.

With Michael A. Taylor providing some early offense on a two-run homer and the Twins later adding insurance runs on RBI knocks by Donovan Solano, Jorge Polanco and Kyle Farmer, another stingy effort by Minnesota's first-year ace made for a fourth straight time the team emerged victorious with him on the mound.

“I can’t really single one thing out,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s doing everything at a very high level. The strike throwing, all the off-speed pitches, I mean, the changeup was really good today. Everything was really good today. … He’s doing it all right now, is what he’s doing.”

López allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in four of six innings and worked with multiple runners on in the first and fifth. But each time, he made his pitches -- retiring three in a row with two on in the first, and stranding the bases loaded with a weak popout in the fifth.

Pirates hitters finished the night 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position against López.

“The approach doesn’t change,” López said. “You still want to be ahead, you want to attack the zone. But the conviction has to be there. You ask yourself, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ And if you’re fine with that outcome, then you go with it.”

López has already blown by his previous career high of 174 strikeouts and is on pace to easily eclipse 200 K's for the season, which would make him the first Twins pitcher to reach that threshold since José Berríos had 202 in 2018.

At that point, López would become just one of nine pitchers in club history to reach that mark and, at his current pace, could have the most strikeouts in a season by a Twins pitcher since his idol, Johan Santana, struck out 235 batters in 2007.

Just as significantly, López is at 153 2/3 innings for the season, nearing his career high of 180 set last year. But rather than fading, he’s growing ever stronger, looking every bit like the ace the Twins traded for in the hopes that he could pitch them out of their playoff win drought come October.

And fueled by the strides of last year, his confidence is only growing.

“I know my body can take it,” López said. “I know, mentally, I will be able to. And then it just becomes doing it with the mindset of, ‘What can I do today to give the team the best opportunity to come out winning?’ I think that's what's been different this year. I know in my mind I can do it.”