Blue Jays 0 Twins 2
That wasn’t fun.
Pablo López showed why he’s one of the best pitchers in the league.
He went 7.2, allowing six hits, no walks with three strikeouts. He kept the ball on the ground, 13 ground outs to 2 fly outs. When we did get hits, it was a ground ball that found a hole or infield singles. We didn’t have an extra-base hit.
I was surprised when they took López out of the game, but he was at 106 pitches. In came Grifin Jax, who threw three pitches to get Daulton Varsho to strikeout to end the eighth. He threw fastballs at 97.9 and 98.7.
I would have left Jax in the game for the ninth but Jhoan Duran came in. His fastballs to Wil Wagner were 100.6, 100.5, 100.3, 101.0, 101.6 and 101.8, the last of which Wagner hit for a single. But a ground-out force and a double play ended the game, giving Duran his 19 save.
Kevin Gausman was also good but gave up two earned, on four hits, four walks with four strikeouts in 5.2 innings. He worked a lot harder than López.
Zach Pop came into the game in the sixth with two on and two out and got Carlos Santana. And he got the first two outs of the seventh. Brendon Little got the last out of the seventh and pitched a scoreless eighth.
No one gets the JoD today. Leo Jimenez had the high mark, at .076 WPA.
The Other Award: Varsho (-.167, 0 for 4, k), Vlad (-.121, 0 for 4, he had rough day), Kirk (-.116, 0 for 3, k. He did hit a ball hard to center, caught near the track, after seemingly hurting his hand on the swing before) and Clement (-.108).
Tomorrow, it is a slightly earlier game, 7:00 Eastern. Jose Berrios (13-9, 3.72) faces his old team. Zebby Mathews (1-1, 3.00) makes his fourth career start. Let’s gets some runs tomorrow.