Twins’ Pablo López looking forward to showdown with Cardinals’ Sonny Gray

There’s a statistic that’s been bugging Pablo López for a while, going back to when he joined the Twins and became a teammate of Sonny Gray 19 months ago. Among all his numbers, this one’s a big zero that López can still cite, and it’s one he would like to turn around on Saturday, when the Twins righthander faces his distinguished now-former teammate at Target Field.

Lopez knows, however, that something crazy would have to happen for him to erase that zero. No, not the 0-2 record he has when facing Gray, the result of two Reds-Marlins games in 2019. López likes his chances to beat the slumping Cardinals, who have lost seven of their last 10.

No, this zero is personal.

“I’m 0-for-2 against Sonny at the plate. With a strikeout,” López said, before breaking into a broad grin. “But I struck him out once, too.”

Yeah, that .000 average figures to be permanent, and not just because the universal DH has eliminated pitchers hitting. López had 11 career hits in his National League years, but he is unlikely to ever add another.

But that’s the good-natured spirit with which López is approaching the return of one of the more memorable pitchers to spend a couple of seasons in Minnesota.

“It’ll be a lot of fun to see him. We got really close while he was here,” López said of the 2023 AL Cy Young Award runner-up. “I’m glad it’s the second game [of the three-game series, which begins Friday]. That way, we’ll get to talk about it on Friday, interact on the field and catch up a little.”

They still occasionally text each other, López said, but they haven’t been together since Gray signed a three-year contract with St. Louis four days after Thanksgiving last November, a deal that guarantees him $75 million with a mutual option for a fourth season at $30 million. He’s the only one of three former Twins pitchers on the Cardinals staff — Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn are in the rotation, too — scheduled to make a start this weekend.

“Yeah, we’re really seeing some familiar faces lately,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said, noting that ex-Twins Tyler Mahle and Martín Pérez started games against Minnesota last Sunday and Tuesday, respectively, and Luis Arraez and Donovan Solano were in the lineup this week in San Diego.

In addition to Gray, José Berríos is in line to start at Target Field on Aug. 30, when the Blue Jays visit.

“You’d like to think your familiarity with a guy is an advantage, but I wouldn’t call it that because they’re good players who make adjustments, too,” said Baldelli, whose team has also faced Tampa Bay starter Zack Littell on the opposite mound this season and Detroit’s Kenta Maeda twice. “You do have some understanding of what makes them a success, which could work in your favor, but that’s far from a lock. We certainly can’t count on that.”

Gray is a special case for his former teammates because he was such a leader of the pitching staff, López said.

“He did a great job taking me, Joe [Ryan], Bailey [Ober], Louie [Varland] for a little bit, under his wing. He’s a great teacher,” López said. “You know, he can talk — in a good way. He can talk. He would share stories. He would share experiences. He would let us know things in the past that had worked for him. If he saw us working on something, he would help with it.”

Gray hasn’t had nearly as effective a season for the Cardinals this year as he did in a Twins uniform last summer, mostly because his incredible talent for keeping the ball in the park has disappeared. Gray has given up 18 home runs this season, one fewer than his career high, after giving up only eight last year, a 0.4 homer-per-nine-innings rate that led the majors.

His ERA — 2.79 a year ago and 3.08 in 2022, his first season with the Twins after a just-before-camp-opened trade with Cincinnati — has risen to 3.91 this season, and it’s 5.50 in six starts since the All-Star break. His WAR of 1.2, according to Baseball Reference, is less than a quarter of the 5.4 he posted last year.

Still, the Twins have no illusions about Saturday’s game. “Sonny’s a great pitcher, so I’ll have to keep the game close. There’s definitely going to be a little edge to this game. He’s going to be trying to beat me, and I’m going to try to beat him, in a healthy, competitive way,” López said. “Bragging rights are a real thing, but I can’t approach it differently. Sometimes I find myself overthinking some things. I know if I think too much, that can take away from my natural abilities. But it’s going to be fun.”

López has been strategizing, and not just about how to pitch to the Cardinals.

“I’ll see if I can do something on the mound to rattle him a little bit,” López said of his friend. “Maybe hide the rosin bag he’s using or something.”