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Pablo López stellar in return but Twins fall to Marlins

betsy helfand, pioneer press
·2 min read

MIAMI — Against his former teammates, in his former home, with one of his childhood heroes, Johan Santana, looking on, Pablo López put on a show that was well worth the price of admission.

For seven innings Wednesday, López stymied his old friends, capping his second outing of the season with a trio of swinging strikeouts. For his efforts, he took a no-decision as the Twins fell 5-2 in the series finale to the Miami Marlins on Wednesday afternoon at loanDepot Park thanks in large part to two home runs from Marlins designated hitter Jorge Soler.

López was matched by his good friend Jesús Luzardo, who held Twins hitters quiet, striking out 10 in his seven innings for the Marlins. But the game was decided by the bullpens, and after Twins reliever Griffin Jax gave up a pair of hits in the eighth, Caleb Thielbar came on and allowed a single to Bryan De La Cruz to give the Marlins the lead and a three-run homer to Soler to provide the knockout blow.

Prior to that, López and Luzardo had kept things tight.

Leaning heavily on his new sweeper and his four-seam fastball, which averaged about 96 miles per hour, up a couple ticks from last year, and less on his signature changeup, López worked through the Marlins lineup with few issues.

Twice when he allowed base runners, he promptly picked them off trying to steal second. The first time came right before he allowed a home run to Soler, the difference between a one-run and two-run deficit at the time. Only one other runner reached second ibase while he was on the mound. López racked up 15 whiffs in his outing, including nine on the sweeper.

The Twins tied the score in the seventh when Ryan Jeffers doubled and Trevor Larnach followed with an RBI hit and added another run on a wild pitch in the ninth.

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