MINNEAPOLIS -- The stakes weren’t as high, the game wasn’t played in front of a frenzied sellout crowd, and no playoff history was made, but Pablo López twirling another gem over the Blue Jays on Friday still mattered to Minnesota.

López extended his scoreless streak to a career high 20 2/3 innings as the Twins snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-0 win in the series opener.

Just as he did on Oct. 4, 2023, López outdueled Toronto starter Kevin Gausman at Target Field. The Twins’ ace twirled 7 2/3 scoreless innings, scattering six hits, fanning three and walking none. He breezed through the first four perfect innings on just 46 pitches, retiring nine of the first 12 batters he faced on groundouts.

“We were facing probably the hottest pitcher in baseball tonight,” Gausman said. “Pablo has shown that when he’s on and he’s facing us, he can go deep in the game and throw up some zeros. When he’s on, he’s one of the best in the game, and he was definitely on tonight.”

That much was evident early on, as López needed just 46 pitches to breeze through the first four perfect innings, retiring nine of the first 12 batters he faced on groundouts.

“We knew going into the game, there are some guys that refuse to strike out a lot,” López said. “But if you make good, quality pitches, you might have an opportunity to finish the at-bat quickly.”

All told, López induced 13 groundouts, relying on soft contact and strong defense to keep his pitch count down and give the Twins some much-needed length. A key 4-6-3 double play ended the sixth inning. In the seventh, Matt Wallner played a carom off the wall perfectly and cut down Spencer Horwitz trying to stretch a single into a double.

“Those types of outs can quicken the pace of the game up,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “[López] did a good job of attacking with his fastball tonight, both two-seam and four-seam. He ran it in when he wanted to, he had the changeup working pretty good today. He used his curveball a good amount. It was a good execution day for him.”

Gausman was unusually effective against Minnesota, but all the offense the Twins needed came in the fifth inning. Jose Miranda led off with a double before scoring on a Carlos Santana single to right. Santana would move over to third on a sacrifice bunt by Austin Martin before coming home on a deep sac fly by Willi Castro.

The win kept the Twins 3 1/2 games back of the Guardians in the AL Central, and 3 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox for the final AL Wild Card spot. Minnesota came into the series reeling, having lost four in a row and eight of 10, but the manager was confident handing the ball to his 28-year-old righty in a pressure-packed spot.

“I think Pablo’s got as much experience in these situations as anyone we have,” Baldelli said before Friday’s opener. “I think he likes being in these spots, he likes big opportunities to help the team [and] he thrives off of it.”

López, who is 3-0 with 0.67 ERA over his last four starts, retired the first two hitters in the eighth before being lifted after giving up consecutive singles and reaching 106 pitches. As he exited, the crowd roared in approval, acknowledging that this “Pablo Day” was indeed a special one.