Twins pitchers taking a more attacking approach so far this season

BOSTON – At first glance, Jorge López's reasoning sounds like twisted logic, or perhaps a misunderstanding about the rules. The Twins defense, López asserts, is the reason why he hasn't walked a batter this season.

But hear him out, and it makes sense.

"We've talked about this since spring training — we have a really good defense behind us, so let's use it," the All-Star reliever said. "Let's attack guys. Let our pitches dictate the game. Our outfielders do a great job of turning [batted] balls into outs, and it makes me a better pitcher."

He's got a point. Opponents entered Wednesday hitting just .261 against Twins pitching on balls in play; only the Rays have a better figure. And if confidence in that defense is indeed giving the Twins reason to throw more strikes, well, it's working.

The Twins pitching staff had walked only 39 batters this season, by far the fewest in the American League and 27.7% fewer than the 54 they had given up by this point last year. López has faced 26 hitters so far, and walked none of them; last year, in two months with the Twins after coming over in a trade with Baltimore, he walked 5.6 hitters per nine innings, one of the worst rates on the team.

"It used to be, I'd get behind a hitter and would throw around the edges [of the strike zone]. I walked a lot of guys trying to get them to chase," López said. "But our preparation now, mentally, is to just go ahead and attack guys. I have a lot more confidence now, even when I get behind, to throw strikes. It's a better mentality."

Same goes for his teammates, who collectively average an AL-best 2.3 walks per nine innings. Five more months remain, obviously, but the only seasons the Twins have had a lower walk rate were in 2005 and 2006, the heyday of Johan Santana and Brad Radke, who once led the league in walk rate.

Free plays, where one team gets to decide whether to keep the result of a play or nullify it, are common in football but much rarer in baseball. So Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler said Wednesday that he would have liked to see, just for the experience, what Red Sox manager Alex Cora would have decided had Christian Vázquez's catchers' interference Tuesday played out differently.

Pinch hitter Reese McGuire's bat made contact with Vázquez's glove as he hit a slow roller to third baseman Jose Miranda, whose throw to Donovan Solano pulled the first baseman off the bag. Kiké Hernández, who had been on first base, saw third unguarded and took the extra base.

"Obviously we didn't finish the play [at first]. But if we had [gotten the out] and [Hernández] goes to third, then [Cora] had the option of accepting the [inning's second] out and the tying runner at third, or first-and-second and one out," Tingler said. "I think he would have chosen first and second. But it would have been interesting to see how it plays out."

Speaking of odd plays, the game ended with another, a fly ball that struck the wall in fair territory just beyond the right-field foul pole. The Red Sox celebration was delayed as the play was examined on replay, with fans wondering why such an obvious call was being reviewed.

The reason: "I actually thought it was fan interference," Tingler said, "though they decided there wasn't enough evidence to overturn it. But if you look closely at one video angle, it appears the ball goes through the fingers of a fan reaching over the wall."

Had replay umpires agreed, the play would have been dead, and umpires on the field left to decide what the ruling should be — with an inning-ending out one possibility if they deemed the ball catchable.

• Kyle Garlick, who homered off Nestor Cortes in Yankee Stadium on Friday, was optioned back to Class AAA St. Paul on Wednesday to make room for Joey Gallo, activated from the injured list.

• Injured Twins righthander Josh Winder gave up two runs, including a solo homer to Billy McKinney, in 1⅓ innings as the Saints lost to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 3-1 in a game that was shortened to seven innings because of rain at CHS Field. Twins second baseman Jorge Polanco went 1-for-4 with an infield single.