The figures are ugly: during their six-game season series against the Yankees, the Twins were down by a score of 36–12 at the end of 51 of their 54 innings. Pablo López gave up seven runs and a career-high six walks on Thursday.
It was finally good news for the Twins, who had endured six ugly games against the New York Yankees in the last month. They have no more games against the Yankees planned.
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The final Twins pitcher preventing an end-of-season series sweep, Pablo López, gave up seven runs and a career-high six walks in four innings during Thursday’s 8-5 loss at Yankee Stadium.
The season series was a crushing defeat for one team. During their six-game season series against the Yankees, the Twins were down 36–12 at the end of 51 of their 54 innings.
Since April 22, when their 12-game winning streak began, the Twins have a.619 winning percentage, but they have never been able to overcome the team that has tormented them for the previous 20 years. With the exception of the previous season, New York has only lost one season series to the Twins in the previous 23 years. However, this was their first sweep of the Twins since 2009.
Manager Rocco Baldelli stated, “We don’t have time to dwell on anything because we have a lot of games coming up.”
Never having looked like himself, López became the first Twins pitcher to walk six batters in a game since Chris Archer twice in the 2022 campaign. In the second inning, he got Yankees catcher Austin Wells with an erroneous slider on a 0-2 count. After letting two batters reach base, López threw a first-pitch fastball over the middle of the plate, which Trent Grisham hammered home for two runs into the right-field stands. This season, Grisham has two hits in 39 at-bats.
“Their pitching has been outstanding lately so to score five runs on that pitching staff, it’s outstanding,” López stated. “The offensive didn’t give up. In inning after inning, I just kept finding myself in a deeper hole. I should definitely not be doing that. I’m responsible.”
Following a game-tying home run by Twins catcher Christian Vázquez in the third inning, López replied by walking the first three hitters he saw in the bottom half of the inning: Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton. This season, López has walked 11 times in 67 innings.
The three walks resulted in goals. Wells followed with a sacrifice fly after Gleyber Torres whacked a two-strike sinker through the right side of the infield for a two-run double. Max Kepler made a leaping grab on the warning track to stop the 34-pitch inning from getting out of hand.
“I’ve had games this season I walk away and I’m like, ‘Man, I wonder what could have been different today?'” stated Lopez. It’s quite evident. Six strolls. Pitch hit. Against a roster this strong, that equates to seven free passes. All you’re doing is feeding them.”
López’s ERA skyrocketed to 5.45, giving up two additional runs in the fourth inning following a four-pitch walk to Anthony Volpe and an infield single to Judge. After Volpe and Judge accomplished a double steal, Volpe was able to score when Vázquez’s throw to third base bounced into left field. Stanton blasted an RBI single up the middle two pitches later.
BOXSCORE: Twins 5, Yankees 8,
Despite López’s slow start, the Twins outperformed the Yankees offensively. Marcus Stroman’s innings total was just 4⅔. In the fifth inning, after Carlos Correa placed two runners in scoring position with no outs, Max Kepler smashed a ground-rule RBI double down the left-field line on a ball that left fielder Aaron Judge strangely failed to attempt to catch.
After going 0-for-25 in their previous six games against the Yankees, Kepler’s double was the Twins’ first hit with a man in scoring position. Carlos Santana’s two-out RBI single to right field brought him home from third.
After a 56-minute rain delay at the end of the fifth inning, the Twins were down three runs and left two men on base in the sixth and eighth innings. At the last out of the game, Royce Lewis was unable to go to the plate to attempt the game-winning run, so he stayed on deck.
