Pablo López is pitching so well this month, he’s decided to crank up the degree of difficulty, just for practice.
OK, maybe not. But that’s certainly how the righthander made it look on Friday, putting Pirates in scoring position in five of his six innings, then breaking their spirit with timely strikeouts or routine popups. López ran his scoreless-innings streak to 19 consecutive innings, and the Twins won for the fourth time in five games, 5-1 at Target Field.
The Twins continued their hot hitting at home — they’ve scored at least three runs in each of their 12 games in Minnesota since the All-Star break, and five or more in nine of them — but still felt a little victimized by Pirates pitching.
That’s because Matt Wallner, who doubled and scored in the sixth inning to extend his Target Field hitting streak to five straight, was hit on his left hand as he swung at an Angel Perdomo fastball in the seventh. Wallner left the game in evident pain, but the Twins announced after the game that his hand was bruised, not broken.
Two innings later, Pirates reliever Yohan Ramirez hit back-to-back Twins hitters, Jordan Luplow on the hand and Royce Lewis on the elbow. Both looked unhappy about being struck, and the announced crowd of 30,687 booed loudly, but neither player left the game.
The Pirates put runners on base in eight of the nine innings, but scored only once, going 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position. The Twins, on the other hand, reached base in seven of their eight turns at bat, and collected three clutch hits in seven tries. The biggest hit of the night belonged to Michael A. Taylor, who smashed a two-out, fourth-inning changeup from Pittsburgh starter Andre Jackson 410 feet into the seats in left-center, a two-run blast.
The home run was Taylor’s 16th of the season, and 12th while batting ninth in the Twins’ lineup, giving him a major part of a minor team record. It was the 20th home run by the bottom hitter in the Twins’ batting order this season, which not only leads the major leagues but tied the franchise record set in 2019, when Byron Buxton, Jake Cave and Jonathan Schoop produced from the No. 9 spot.
Donovan Solano drove Wallner home in the sixth with a single, and the Twins put the game out of reach with two more in the eighth. Royce Lewis hit a one-out double off Perdomo, Jorge Polanco drove him home with a single, and Kyle Farmer, hitting for Wallner after he was hurt, doubled home another run.
All of that was plenty of support for López, who hasn’t needed much lately. López has surrendered only one run in the past 27 innings he’s pitched, and none for three straight starts, totaling a career-best 19 innings.
But the All-Star pitcher wasn’t exactly sharp on Friday, giving up six hits, two walks and, yes, hitting a batter.
Pirates leadoff hitters reached base four times in six innings, and twice they got to second base with nobody out. Lopez had no clean innings, but it didn’t matter — by using a changeup that got a remarkable 10 swing-and-misses, and a fastball that averaged 95.3 mph, López ended the threats with strikeouts three times in the first four innings.
Griffin Jax had a little of that stay-where-you-are magic, too, an encouraging turnaround in what’s been an unsteady month. Taking over for Thielbar with runners on second and third with no outs, Jax retired Ke’Bryan Hayes on a popup, then struck out Jack Suwinski and Henry Davis, the latter on an 87-mph changeup after three straight 97-mph fastballs.