{"id":283763,"date":"2024-06-24T08:31:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T13:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=283763"},"modified":"2024-06-24T10:25:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T15:25:16","slug":"lopez-flirts-with-perfection-14-k-8-inning-gem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=283763","title":{"rendered":"L\u00f3pez Flirts With Perfection 14-K, 8-Inning Gem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OAKLAND CA – wasn\u2019t quite perfect but he was pretty darn close. Though the Twins\u2019 ace lost his bid for a perfect game on a two-out single in the sixth inning, he roared back to ace form with one of the most dominant efforts of his career, matching a career high with 14 strikeouts in eight innings as he pitched the Twins to a 3-0 victory<\/a> over the A\u2019s at the Oakland Coliseum in the club\u2019s farewell to the historic building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most significantly, amid a very challenging season that he described after his last start as \u201cone step forward, two or three steps back,\u201d he took a massive surge forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it wakes up the monster, you know, the monster that he is,\u201d catcher Christian V\u00e1zquez said. \u201cHe’s a very, very great pitcher that’s had some bad outings. I think that’s going to wake him up, and I hope he’s just on cruise control from now on forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While L\u00f3pez didn\u2019t get the chance for individual glory, he was a part of history anyway: Between the final 17 outs of Bailey Ober\u2019s complete-game gem<\/a> on Saturday and the first 17 outs of L\u00f3pez\u2019s masterpiece on Sunday, this marked the first stretch in club history (since relocation to Minnesota in 1961) that Twins pitchers retired 34 consecutive batters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per the Elias Sports Bureau, it\u2019s the first time any team has retired that many consecutive batters since April 9-10, 2017, by the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it’s an all-time Twins record, it’s quite amazing, so it felt good,\u201d manager Rocco Baldelli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that dinged L\u00f3pez\u2019s line on Sunday was that two-out single by Lawrence Butler in the sixth, a one-out single by Miguel Andujar in the seventh and a two-out walk to Zack Gelof in the eighth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, a needed show of renewed dominance from the Twins\u2019 struggling ace marked the second time in his career in which he fanned 14 batters (also done last Sept. 10 against the Mets), putting him in a very elite echelon alongside Bert Blyleven, Johan Santana and Camilo Pascual as the only pitchers in Twins history with multiple 14-strikeout games for the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the type of dominance not seen in a Twins uniform since the days of Santana — L\u00f3pez\u2019s childhood idol — who had been the last Minnesota pitcher with at least 14 strikeouts in a scoreless effort (Santana\u2019s legendary 17-strikeout game on Aug. 19, 2007). Since then, L\u00f3pez is the only Twins pitcher with such an outing — and he\u2019s now done it twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But L\u00f3pez isn\u2019t savoring this outing so much as he\u2019s already looking ahead to figuring out how he can sustain this and turn around the inconsistencies that have led to his ERA being 5.11 this season, even after these eight scoreless frames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels really good, but now, it\u2019s like, \u2018How can we make it happen again? If I did it once, I can do it again,\u2019\u201d L\u00f3pez said. \u201cJust keeping that mentality. Obviously, a game where things went the way they went today allows me to be like, \u2018You know what? My confidence should \u2026 stay up for most of the time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a conversation with one of his teammates — L\u00f3pez wouldn\u2019t reveal who — the right-hander went back to stirrup socks, much like how he mixed things up by shaving his facial hair before a strong start in Houston<\/a> on May 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baldelli had coyly hinted at the idea that L\u00f3pez had found some specific mechanical adjustments, and that it would be on the pitcher himself to reveal them if he wished — but L\u00f3pez mostly stayed away from the details of what helped him find this renewed form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, there was time to find some changes, there was time to look at some things going back to when things were going the best, when the body was feeling the best, when the mind was feeling the best,\u201d L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

V\u00e1zquez noted that execution of two-strike pitches was a particular emphasis, with L\u00f3pez having been in the zone too often with those pitches in the past. V\u00e1zquez helped with better targeting setups, and L\u00f3pez executed, starting his outing by fanning seven of the first nine batters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that left little work for center fielder Byron Buxton, who didn\u2019t even get to field a ball while L\u00f3pez was on the mound with all those strikeouts — but he\u2019s not complaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoring, but not, because I got to watch Pablo,\u201d Buxton said with a grin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND CA – wasn\u2019t quite perfect but he was pretty darn close. Though the Twins\u2019 ace lost his bid for a perfect game on a two-out single in the sixth inning, he roared back to ace form with one of the most dominant efforts of his career, matching a career high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":273604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283796,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283763\/revisions\/283796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/273604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=283763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=283763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}