Twins 7, Brewers 0: López Deals and Twins Offense Seals 13th in a Row!

SP: Pablo López 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K – 95 pitches, 66 strikes (69%)
Home Runs: Ryan Jeffers (3), Kody Clemens (3)
Top 3 WPA: Lopez (.232), Jeffers (.152), Brooks Lee (.106)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Twins entered Saturday night’s border battle in Milwaukee on the heels of a 12-game winning streak, but with significant injuries still impacting their day-to-day ability to compete. Byron Buxton joined Carlos Correa on the 7-day concussion list, and Willi Castro stayed out of the lineup after taking a foul ball to the leg Friday night. Would this uncanny squad of youngsters and castaways find a way to extend the streak to a baker’s dozen?

Pablo Day
One advantage that the depleted Twins had was that their ace Pablo López was on the mound. Before López could even throw a pitch, Ryan Jeffers showed everyone at American Family Field what his torpedo bat advantage looked like.

Jeffers staked the Twins to a 1-0 lead, and López made sure that was enough as he cruised through the first four innings with ease. Just in case, his teammates added lone runs in each of the first four innings to help pad the cushion.

In the top of the second, Royce Lewis got things started with a lead-off double. Just as Twins fans were about to lament his being stranded in scoring position, Christian Vázquez stayed hot and singled home Lewis with two outs. Jeffers again delivered in the top of the third, leading off with a double of his own. This time it was Ty France who delivered the RBI for the Twins, but not without an almost superhuman play by Sal Frelick.

When the dust settled on that play it was 3-0 Twins. Kody Clemens immediately tried to make it 4-0 with a single to Frelick, but this time Sal gunned down Brooks Lee at home and the out counted to keep the lead at three.

Piranhas and Spartans

While López was embarassing the Brewers in their half of the innings, the Minnesota bats kept on keeping the zeros off the board. In the top of the fourth, it was Trevor Larnach’s turn to start the offense, and Jeffers advanced Larnach with his third hit of the game. Lee stepped to the plate with a chance to get that rogue run back, and he laced a single off of Brice Turang’s glove to expand the lead to 4-0. When the fifth inning rolled around, it was time to break out the Spartan helmet once again, because Clemens loves yanking sweeepers into bullpens.

López is Him, and So is Everyone Else Pitching in a Twins Jersey
Now staked to a 5-0 lead, Lopez entered the bottom of the fifth inning having thrown 63 pitches and accumulating two strike outs. 17 pitches later Lopez had struck out the bottom of the Brewers order, and delivered the 29th straight scoreless inning for the Twins. The major league record is 48 consecutive scoreless innings by the 1968 Chicago Cubs and the 1906 Philadelphia Athletics. Would the Twins streak continue until Monday night?

Did I Mention the Twins Offense is Relentless?
Larnach got the top of the sixth started with yet another lead-off extra-base hit, this time a bloop of a triple. The Brewers finally got Jeffers out on a hard shot to third that kept Larnach from scoring, but Lee again knocked in the run to make it 6-0 and to keep the run-per-inning streak alive at six!

That streak stopped in the seventh, as the Twins were blanked by Rob Zastryzny. But Justin Topa kept the scoreless streak alive at 30 innings by keeping two early baserunners right where they were by eliciting weak contact for the final two outs. It only took Jorge Alcalá 15 pitches to keep the streak alive. The Twins wasted time by scoring again in the top of the ninth with DaShawn Keirsey Jr. plating Clemens to make it 7-0, but after that nonsense was finished Kody Funderburk came in and locked down the 33rd scoreless inning, and the 13th consecutive victory.

What’s Next?

The Twins go for their 14th win in a row Sunday afternoon with “TBD” (Zebby Matthews) getting the start for Minnesota against veteran righty Freddy