NEW YORK -- Though the Twins’ offense mounted a considerable amount more resistance throughout Thursday night’s prolonged affair at Yankee Stadium, the result was very familiar in an 8-5 defeat to the Yankees that ensured a winless regular season against the Bronx Bombers.

But the manner in which this loss unfolded was about as unfamiliar as can be.

Pablo López, normally one of the most reliable strike-throwers in the league, struggled with a career-high six walks and one hit batter as he allowed seven earned runs for the second time this season. And after he’d seemingly found some indication of getting a tough season on track with seven strong innings in Houston earlier this road trip, Thursday represented a big step back.

“It's frustrating,” López said. “After a good one like that, you're hoping, wanting to string a couple good ones [together] here and there. That wasn't the case. It hasn't been easy.”

Even when López had gotten hit around in a rough May that saw him post a 4.84 ERA in six starts, he has rarely looked like this. He’d allow contact that found grass, and he got into some homer trouble, but rarely in two years with the Twins has he struggled with free passes.

“That was a tough day, but it’s not something you would ever expect to see,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

But with the Twins hoping to avoid a sweep in this historic house of horrors for their organization, López turned in the first six-walk outing by a Minnesota pitcher since July 27, 2022, when Chris Archer walked six Brewers. Four of López’s six walks came around to score -- as did Austin Wells, the batter he hit.

The Twins finished the season 0-6 against the Yankees, outscored 36-12 in those games.

Only 37.5% of López’s 96 pitches found the strike zone on Thursday, the second-lowest percentage of any outing in his career.

Catcher Christian Vázquez and Baldelli both figured that the humid conditions at Yankee Stadium had something to do with that. Those conditions manifested in both López’s seemingly drenched gray jersey and the 56-minute rain delay after the fifth inning.

“It was, like, very obvious that he was sweating and trying to dry his hand a lot,” Vázquez said. “I saw that myself. I changed my jersey three times.”

But López didn’t make such excuses to his catcher during the game. And he didn’t mention the conditions at all when addressing the media after his outing about the struggles he faced as he labored through four innings despite allowing only four hits, ballooning his season ERA to 5.45.

“I think it was just lack of feel for everything,” López said. “I tried to make adjustments with my sights, targeting. It just wasn't there.”

Missing the zone alone doesn’t necessarily equate to lack of success, as the only outing in which he found the zone less often was his Opening Day start in Kansas City on March 30, 2023, when he threw only 34.1% of his pitches in the strike zone but delivered 5 1/3 scoreless innings en route to a victory.

The difference is that these Yankees are the most disciplined team in the American League at taking pitches outside the zone.

Two batters after López issued an 0-2 hit-by-pitch to Wells with one out in the second inning, he did get in the zone with a first-pitch fastball to Trent Grisham, who crushed it for a go-ahead two-run homer.

When López struggled to find the zone against Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the third, walking them sequentially to load the bases with none out, he also got back in the zone -- but Gleyber Torres nudged a two-run double inside the first-base line and Wells cracked a sacrifice fly to cash in those runners, too.

López said he’ll evaluate his mechanics and pitch movement to see if there’s anything to take away from this. He has had to do a lot of self-evaluation as part of this rough five-start stretch in which he has allowed 24 earned runs and 35 hits in 27 innings (an 8.00 ERA).

“A blip, I see it more like that,” López said. “I have been doing a good job in the zone challenging, and that’s what we do. That’s what we do as a pitching staff. That’s our whole philosophy. We want to be aggressive in the zone. I think today I wasn’t, but that’s not who I am. It doesn’t define me.”