{"id":286544,"date":"2024-09-01T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=286544"},"modified":"2024-09-09T08:59:22","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T13:59:22","slug":"lopez-answers-the-call-with-career-high-velocity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=286544","title":{"rendered":"L\u00f3pez Answers The Call With Career-High Velocity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ST. PETERSBURG – The Twins have been running low on star power as they await the end of Carlos Correa\u2019s drawn-out plantar fasciitis saga and seek further updates on Byron Buxton\u2019s most recent hip setback.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But every fifth game still brings Pablo Day — and boy, do they need this version of staff ace Pablo L\u00f3pez<\/a> more than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only has L\u00f3pez left the struggles of his first half behind him, but he\u2019s now dominating with some of the best raw stuff of his seven-year career. His fastball velocity once again soared to unseen heights and his sweeper looked as good as it has all season as L\u00f3pez held the Rays to three runs over 6 2\/3 innings, pitching the Twins to a 4-3 win<\/a> on Thursday at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis stuff right now is sharp as it\u2019s been,\u201d bench coach Jayce Tingler said. \u201cIt\u2019s this time of the year and this is the most electric we\u2019ve seen him. That\u2019s super encouraging going down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The split of the four-game series helped the Twins gain a half-game on the idle Guardians and sneak ahead of the Royals for sole possession of second place in the AL Central<\/a>, closing the gap to a four-game deficit in the division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u00f3pez\u2019s scoreless streak came to an end at 23 1\/3 innings — the longest single-season streak by a Twin since Tyler Duffey in 2019 — and his outing might have been cut short by a nearly 10-minute replay review in the seventh inning. Still, he helped an Edouard Julien three-run blast and Matt Wallner solo shot stand as enough offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And somehow, as a grueling season nears its end, L\u00f3pez is stronger than ever — especially in his continued recovery from a rough first half in which his stuff was way down at times and he pitched to a 5.11 ERA by the All-Star break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think early on in the year, there were panic level meters going off everywhere [outside], and I think in here, the panic level was so low for him just because of the pure worker he is,\u201d catcher Ryan Jeffers said. \u201cI think we knew this was coming. He\u2019s our ace. He\u2019s been our ace. He\u2019s one of the top pitchers in all of baseball and he\u2019s showing that now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u00f3pez had never thrown a pitch at 98 mph in his career entering Thursday — but he threw three of them in this game alone, topping out at 98.6 mph. His sweeper, an inconsistent pitch for much of the year, generated a 70% whiff rate, his second-highest mark of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that, he credits additional attention to the biomechanics of his delivery in his post-start reviews, the extra day of rest he gets between starts to be able to focus his between-games bullpen sessions and everything from the Twins\u2019 nutritionists to their sleep doctors in helping him maximize his body and get his season back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s definitely a wonderful feeling to see how the stuff is this late into the season, like you said, later into my career,\u201d L\u00f3pez said. \u201cWe have all those resources, and the least we can do is to ask questions, see what many ways to get better are out there and try them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though L\u00f3pez wasn\u2019t perfect — he allowed a two-run, bases-loaded single to Junior Caminero in the third inning and an RBI double to Yandy D\u00edaz in the seventh — his effective, lengthy outing is exactly what these injury-ridden Twins needed as he pitched the club to victory for the fourth time in his last five outings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve really needed those efforts, too. Playing without Correa and Buxton — and now, Max Kepler — the Twins had lost four in a row ahead of L\u00f3pez\u2019s previous outing, when he threw 7 2\/3 scoreless innings against the Blue Jays to stop the skid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before that, they had dropped four of five leading into a matchup against the Cardinals — and then, too, L\u00f3pez had stepped up to throw seven scoreless frames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His team needs him now — and the ace has answered the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe team picked me up plenty of times in the first half when I wasn’t at my best or my sharpest,\u201d L\u00f3pez said. \u201cIt’s one of those things that you have to take it personal. We were down in the series, and I knew I had an opportunity to come out here and do it for my guys, do it for my teammates. They keep doing it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG – The Twins have been running low on star power as they await the end of Carlos Correa\u2019s drawn-out plantar fasciitis saga and seek further updates on Byron Buxton\u2019s most recent hip setback. But every fifth game still brings Pablo Day — and boy, do they need this version […]<\/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-286544","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\/286544","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=286544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286578,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286544\/revisions\/286578"}],"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=286544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}