The Twins were leading the American League Central by one game over Cleveland on the morning of Aug. 2, 2022. It was the trading deadline and the acquisitions included bringing in All-Star reliever Jorge López from Baltimore.
Twins set-up man Jorge López and his 0.00 ERA turns out the lights on opponents
López's ERA is zero. He has pitched in 11 games and worked 10⅔ innings. He's allowed only three hits and been flawless in a set-up role for closer Jhoan Duran.
April 26, 2023 at 5:03AM
There were occasions over the previous two years that I was sounding off about being an admirer of the life on López's pitches.
This even occurred in the early innings of watching a couple of starts for him with the Orioles, when he went 3-14 with a 6.07 ERA for a horrible team.
There was a minor sense of vindication when the Orioles put him in the bullpen to start the 2022 season, and he started piling up outs.
The public commentary when the Twins brought him for the final two months could be framed as: "Wait until you see this guy, folks.''
Didn't quite work out. He was shaky, the Twins were injured and underperforming, and they faded to 78-84, third place and 14 games behind Cleveland.
There were frequent comments toward me about false advertising when it came to López.
The Twins were quick to bring him back for 2023. They did the same with Emilio Pagán, which was more of a puzzle.
We're only 24 games into the schedule and great mysteries remain in the months ahead. For now, though … López has made 11 appearances and has been impeccable.
On Tuesday night, the Twins were playing the New York Yankees at Target Field. The Yankees are beat up with both pitching and with their lineup, and the teams had a split a four-game series in the Bronx a couple of weeks ago.
The Twins won the first game of this series behind Sonny Gray, 6-1, and it gave them two chances to win a season series against the Yankees for the first time since 2001.
They needed only one of those, as Joe Ryan went seven innings, with 72 strikes in 91 pitches, leaving with a 6-2 lead.
Not wanting to tempt the fates that have bedeviled the Twins for two decades-plus vs. the Yankees, manager Rocco Baldelli went with the potent two-man closeout that he has been using in save situations:
López in the eighth and Jhoan Duran in the ninth.
The Twins used their new electronic powers with $30 million-some of new scoreboards to greet López as he jogged in from the bullpen. He gets the full treatment, including the main lights turned off to emphasize his arrival, along with fans lighting the ballpark with their phones.
Three outs, 10 pitches to go through the eighth. That's been close to the norm for him as the ultimate setup pitcher for Duran.
López's ERA is zero. He has pitched in 11 games and worked 10⅔ innings. He's allowed three hits and there was one unearned run.
Everything the Twins were hoping to receive from López when the trade was made last August has been seen in this opening month of 2023.
Baldelli had a casual conversation walking a few yards in a corridor as to what it means to have López and Duran as a combination at the finish, then said in his postgame interview about López:
"He's gone out there and it's really been the definition of mowing them down. … He was ready to go, [pitched] in the WBC, came in a great shape. As far as how crisp and what his pitches, each of them, actually look like and how effective they are, and the way he's commanded these pitches, he's basically putting the ball where he wants with exceptional elite stuff.''
The tidy number of pitches López has been throwing to get three outs — that must allow a manager to use him more than the norm?
"That's a very good thing for us and for the rest of our pen,'' Baldelli said. "There are a lot of days, he comes back after throwing and he says he is ready to pitch.''
Ryan's strong seven gave him win No. 5 in five starts to open the season. It was said to him that Jerry Koosman was the only Twins starter to do that previously, in 1979.
"Were you there?'' said Ryan, the quipster, to the ancient scribe.
I looked it up. I wasn't. It was a 3-2 win in Toronto on May 1, 1979. Koosman went six and Mike Marshall went the last three, scoreless, but walking four.
Such squirming has not been necessary with López-Duran combo in these early days for Ryan and the Twins.
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