MINNEAPOLIS — What Minnesota Twins fans expected to be a showdown between two fan favorites Saturday night turned out to be pretty lopsided.
Though Sonny Gray and Pablo López appeared early on to be headed for a pitcher’s duel, the former Twins All-Star wasn’t up to snuff and the team’s current No. 1 was simply outstanding.
López pitched out of an early jam en route to nine strikeouts, and Trevor Larnach blasted two home runs off Gray in a 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 35,183 fans at Target Field. López and two Twins relievers combined on a five-hit shutout, and Matt Wallner also homered for the Twins, who gained ground on the Kansas City Royals and Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race while keeping pace with the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central.
“(López) looked immaculate,” Larnach said. “It seemed like guys were off-balance. … He just looked like he was commanding the zone and had all his stuff in control.”
Billed as a battle between two old friends and teammates, Saturday’s contest served more as a platform for how good López continues to be.
The right-hander’s pitch velocities were up across the board, and he demonstrated it early.
In trouble in the second inning after a Lars Nootbaar double put two men in scoring position with one out, López relied on a fastball that touched a career-high 97.9 mph and averaged 96.4, up 1.6 mph from his season total (94.8 mph).
First, López blew away Paul Goldschmidt with a 96.7 mph pitch on the outside corner before going up with an 0-2 fastball to strike out Pedro Pagés and strand the runners.
“It’s always a good day when the fastball is pumping,” López said. “For the most part, I blocked (the matchup) out. I know we’re going up against a good pitcher, so in a way I do have to lock in, making sure I’m making good pitches, because any other night, Sonny isn’t allowing a lot of hits, a lot of runs.”
No matter the situation, López had the answer Saturday.
He worked around a leadoff double in the third inning with the help of a Christian Vázquez back pick at third base, a leadoff hit-by-pitch in the fourth and two more base runners in the fifth. Beginning with strikeouts of Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson to strand runners in the fifth, López set down the final eight batters he faced.
López generated a season-best 21 swings-and-misses among the 96 pitches he threw. He improved to 6-2 with a 2.65 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 68 innings over his past 11 starts.
“(López) was pretty lights out,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He pitched great. His stuff today was probably the best that he’s had all year. Some of that might just be where he’s at in the season, but I think he was probably also pretty fired up to pitch against his former teammate.”
Much of the talk Friday surrounded the meeting between López and Gray, who were exquisite together atop the Twins rotation in 2023.
The conversation is only fitting given the Twins are headed into the final one-fifth of the season without ever truly replacing Gray, who finished second in the AL Cy Young vote last season after posting a 2.79 ERA over 184 innings and producing the lowest home run rate by a starting pitcher in Twins history.
He and López fronted one of the best starting rotations in Twins history. López said he learned a lot from his veteran counterpart and was excited to face him Saturday.
“Find a way to make it sharp, find a way to make it work,” López said of the best advice he received from Gray.
Gray was equally complimentary of the Twins.
Though some questioned how much he liked the Twins after making a bold statement in March 2023 about the team needing to let its starters go deeper into games, Gray was right at home during his two seasons in the Twin Cities. He loved mentoring López, Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan and openly discussed returning to the Twins in the hours after their 2023 season came to a disappointing end in the AL Division Series against the Houston Astros.
What stood out most to Gray is what he learned in two seasons with the Twins.
“The way they think about pitching here, the way they talk about pitching, it resonated with me,” Gray said. “I was able to learn a lot here on the other sides, on some things that maybe I hadn’t been told, philosophies and stuff. It was a really good spot for me, so I enjoyed it.”
Gray confirmed Friday he knew early a return to the Twins this season was out of the question. He wanted a fair contract and was open to the idea of returning to a team for which he enjoyed pitching. But the Twins let Gray know at the outset of the offseason they wouldn’t be able to fit him into their budget and then made him a qualifying offer.
“They were very transparent from the get-go, saying, ‘Listen, we do not have the resources to give you a contract, as much as we would like to,’” Gray said.
The Cardinals were equally transparent about wanting Gray, who wanted them back. The sides agreed on a reasonable three-year deal worth $75 million.
Though he started the season strong, Gray has struggled to perform to the level of his contract the past two months, posting a 5.83 ERA over his last 54 innings.
It wasn’t apparent early Saturday, though. Gray shut down his old team in the first inning, striking out the side on 10 pitches. He was good in the second inning, too.
But Austin Martin’s one-out double in the third started a run of five consecutive Twins hitters reaching base. Larnach took advantage of the stretch with a three-run homer to right when Gray left a cutter up and in. Baldelli cited Willi Castro’s walk after Martin and ahead of Larnach as the key plate appearance during the four-run rally.
Two innings later, Larnach lifted off again to make it 5-0.
Wow! If I had a nickel for every time Trevor Larnach hit a home run tonight… I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s great that it happened twice, right? pic.twitter.com/7wBcF6EeaN
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) August 25, 2024
“You’ve got to just win some of those at-bats,” Baldelli said. “He’s used to winning most of those at-bats. Sonny does win most of those types of at-bats. So if you can lay off some of those tough pitches, the odds go in your favor a little bit.”
Correa makes incremental progress
Encouraged because he’s able to do more, Carlos Correa still isn’t at the point of return. He might not be nearing it quite yet, but he’s confident he’ll reach it.
Correa said before Saturday’s contest he was able to successfully run at 80 percent with his right plantar fasciitis before Friday’s game and felt great. He described himself as trending in the right direction after a “really good effort.”
With five weeks left in the regular season, the All-Star’s workload is increasing, and he’s sure he’ll return this season. He’s just not certain when.
“At some point with the work that we’ve been doing lately, I will get back in there,” Correa said. “It’s just a matter of when.”
Friday’s output was the fastest Correa has run since he went on the 10-day IL with the bruised heel. Correa has yet to run the bases at game speed, nor is he wearing cleats. A few weeks back, Correa had a setback when wearing cleats.
Those factors are why the Twins remain guarded about Correa’s progress.
“He is doing more — I would say slightly more,” Baldelli said. “We’re dealing with small degrees of improvement on a regular basis, but it’s hard to say anything beyond that. If I said anything more beyond that, I would be making that up. I don’t have any more thought or opinion. My speculation at this point is probably not any better than anyone’s speculation.”
(Photo of Pablo López: David Berding / Getty Images)
