Pablo López outpitches former teammate Sonny Gray as Twins blank Cardinals 6-0

Pablo López and Sonny Gray believe they brought the best out of each other last season when the two Twins co-aces carried the team to its first postseason series victory in 21 years.

Maybe just the idea of matching up against Gray had the same effect on López.

On Saturday night at Target Field, López spun seven scoreless innings in a magnificent performance, giving up four hits and one walk while striking out nine. His velocity was way up, reaching 98 mph to match the hardest pitches of his career, and Trevor Larnach added two homers off Gray in a 6-0 Twins victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Gray yielded seven hits and five runs across six innings.

“[López] was pretty lights out,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “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. It was a big pitching matchup.”

BOXSCORE: Twins 6, St. Louis 0

MLB standings

López, who threw a first-pitch fastball to 22 of his 26 batters, was relentless. He generated swings and misses with all the pitches in his repertoire. He reached only a pair of three-ball counts. This was the version of López that dominated in the postseason last year.

In seven starts since the All-Star break, López has posted a 2.25 ERA over 44 innings. It’s exactly what the Twins need with starting pitchers Joe Ryan and Chris Paddack on the injured list and three rookies in the rotation.

“There’s always that competitive edge like, ‘I want to outdo my friend. I want to outdo my former teammate,’ ” López said. “For the most part, I blocked that out. I know we’re going up against a good pitcher, so 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.”

The second inning was an early gut-check moment for López. The Cardinals had two runners in scoring position with one out after back-to-back hits from Nolan Arenado and Lars Nootbaar. López turned to his fastball for eight of his next nine pitches, resulting in strikeouts against Paul Goldschmidt and Pedro Pagés. The announced crowd of 35,183 roared with approval.

“It’s always a good day when the fastball is pumping.” said López, breaking into a smile. “It’s no lie when we have a little extra life on it, it can make your life a little more fun.”

Twins catcher Christian Vázquez helped López escape a scoring threat in the third inning. Victor Scott II, the second-fastest runner in the majors according to Statcast, led off the inning with a double down the right-field line.

Two pitches after Scott moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, Alec Burleson whiffed on an elevated fastball and Vázquez rifled a throw to third base to pick off Scott. Vázquez, who flashed a look and a nod at third baseman Royce Lewis before the pitch, pumped his fist in celebration.

López, who retired nine of his final 10 batters with only one ball leaving the infield, exited with a 13-inning scoreless streak.

Gray started his outing by striking out the side in 10 pitches, but things went downhill during a four-run third inning. The Twins had five consecutive batters reach base. Austin Martin started the rally with a hustle double on a soft liner he poked down the first-base line, and Willi Castro followed with a six-pitch walk.

“The Willi Castro at-bat is a subtle moment,” Baldelli said. “Those are not easy pitches to lay off.”

Larnach, who struck out in the first inning, hammered an inside cutter over the right-field wall for a three-run homer.

“I couldn’t see the first at-bat,” Larnach said. “I straight up said a prayer. I was like, ‘Lord, help me, please.’ I just saw the shape up and in.”

In the fifth inning, it was Larnach again on another cutter. Gray left his pitch over the heart of the plate, and Larnach drove it over the fence in center field for the first multihomer game in his big-league career. Gray has yielded 20 homers this season, a single-season career high.