Pablo López throws complete-game shutout as Twins stomp Royals 5-0

Pablo López, the guy who bought the "Land of 10,000 Rakes" vest for teammates to wear after home runs, said a few months ago he wanted to wear it if he threw a complete game.

As he prepared for an on-field interview Wednesday, following his first career complete game, he smiled when Byron Buxton approached him with the vest. When he saw teammates running to him with water coolers, he extended his arms and laughed.

It was the night of López's dreams. He struck out a career-high 12 batters in a four-hit shutout to finish a three-game sweep over the Royals with a 5-0 win at Target Field. The Twins went five years between complete game starts before Joe Ryan ended the drought on June 22.

Twelve games later, it was López's turn.

"It's the most fun I've ever had," said the 27-year-old pitcher, who received a hug from Ryan after his on-field ice bath.

López threw a first-pitch strike to 25 of his 30 batters. With the way his pitches were dancing, hitters stood no chance. He struck out six batters with his fastball, three with his curveball, two on his changeup and one via his slider.

By the end of the sixth inning, he was at 74 pitches and had struck out six consecutive batters. He never threw more than 15 pitches in an inning, completing the shutout in 100 pitches.

"For a full season, 32-plus starts a year, there are only a handful of games where you feel you have a handle on all of your pitches," López said. "Tonight was one of those nights."

It was the most strikeouts by a Twins pitcher since Sonny Gray punched out 13 on April 7. López left hitters with essentially two choices all evening: Fall behind in counts if they watched a pitch or take an early swing that will lead to soft contact. He reached only two three-ball counts in his work of art.

He gave up a two-out, two-strike double to Kyle Isbel in the eighth inning. Isbel was the first baserunner to reach base against López since the third inning, a streak of 15 batters, and López's reaction was a shrug toward the dugout.

"That was a 'Here I am' performance," manager Rocco Baldelli said.

López maintained he didn't start thinking about his chances of pitching a complete game until he was in the dugout in the middle of the eighth inning. He looked at his pitch count for the first time and he was sitting at 94 pitches. He told Baldelli, "I want this to be my game. Let me go out. Give me the opportunity."

It was an easy conversation.

"Oh, he was staying in the game," Baldelli said. "I wanted him to go out there and finish it."

López received a standing ovation from the crowd of 19,692 when he walked onto the field in the ninth inning.

"I got chills in the dugout and running out there," said Ryan Jeffers, who was hit in the neck by a throw from the outfield when he scored from second base on a single in the third inning and enabled another run to score when the ball deflected toward the Twins' dugout.

The way López was in control is what the Twins envisioned when they traded Luis Arraez to Miami to acquire him, and then signed him to a four-year contract extension. He didn't need his defense much until Max Kepler saved a run with a diving catch to end the eighth inning.

In the past six games, Twins starting pitchers have a 0.88 ERA with 51 strikeouts in 41 innings. After MJ Melendez lined out to center for the final out, López tipped his cap to the crowd and pointed to the "Twins" across his jersey.

"Every little milestone that all of us as players get to achieve, we need to soak it in," López said. "As players, as people, we spend so much time dwelling on failure that I think we don't cherish the good times as much. Obviously it's a game of failure. We're in this position because we're the best at handling failure, in a way. But when good moments like this come, I think it's very, very important to enjoy."