Pablo López is pitching so well this month, he's decided to crank up the degree of difficulty, just for practice.
OK, maybe not. But that's certainly how the All-Star righthander made it look on Friday, putting Pirates in scoring position in five of his six innings, then breaking their spirit with timely strikeouts or routine popups. López ran his scoreless-innings streak to 19 consecutive innings, and the Twins won for the fourth time in five games, 5-1 at Target Field.
"Pablo being Pablo, and just kind of getting it done, inning after inning," said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. "When the leadoff hitters get on, you have to really work hard to get through innings. There's no way around that, and he got through them."
Meanwhile, the Twins didn't put their leadoff hitter on base in the first seven innings, yet still managed to continue their hot hitting at home. They have scored at least three runs in each of their 12 games in Minnesota since the All-Star break, and five or more in nine of them. Yet they still felt a little victimized by Pirates pitching.
That's because Matt Wallner, who doubled and scored in the sixth inning to extend his Target Field hitting streak to five straight, was hit on his left hand as he swung at an Angel Perdomo fastball in the seventh. Wallner left the game in evident pain, but X-rays afterward found only a bruise, no broken bones.
"His bones are made of cement," Baldelli marveled. "I don't know how his hand isn't broken, because it looked like he got hit pretty squarely."
Wallner couldn't explain it, either. He couldn't hold the bat correctly after getting hit, he said, "and it feels a lot better now than I thought it would."
Two innings later, Pirates reliever Yohan Ramirez hit back-to-back Twins hitters, Jordan Luplow on the hand and Royce Lewis on the elbow. Both looked unhappy about being struck, and the announced crowd of 30,687 booed loudly, but neither player left the game.
