WEST SACRAMENTO -- For the second time this season, the Twins are preparing to do without Pablo López for a while.
López, Minnesota’s Opening Day starter and one of its best and most reliable pitchers, left Tuesday night’s 10-3 win against the Athletics after five innings due to what the club believes is a right latissimus dorsi (lat) strain.
There is no formal diagnosis yet, and no transaction has been made. But it is expected that López will be placed on the injured list. He was scheduled to receive further examination and imaging on Wednesday.
"It's safe to say it's a likely IL, but we have a lot more to learn over the next couple of days,” said manager Rocco Baldelli.
López first felt some discomfort in the area near the back of his shoulder with two outs in the fifth inning. He finished the frame, went through his normal between-inning routine and took the mound in the sixth. But after three warmup pitches, he gestured to the dugout.
After a mound conference, López walked off the mound with head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta.
"I went out there and I made my three warmup pitches and it was low to mid intensity, and I felt the same thing,” he said. “And in my head I’m like, ‘well, if it feels that way, if I tried to make a max effort throw to get the inning started, who knows what could happen?’
"It sucks," added López. "I don’t like it. I hate missing out on a start. I hate getting taken out. I hate the idea of thinking it could be something bad. But we can’t control things like this.”
Cole Sands relieved López, who walked out to the clubhouse behind the left-field wall while Sands was warming up. The Twins' bullpen allowed one run over the final four innings, making López the winning pitcher. He allowed two runs on four hits over five innings, with four strikeouts and three walks.
This would mark the second IL stint of the year for López, who prior to this year had not missed so much as a single start as a member of the Twins. In April, he missed two starts due to a strained right hamstring.
The lat is a large muscle in the side of the back. Lat injuries can be tricky -- somewhat like oblique injuries -- but assuming the diagnosis doesn’t change with further evaluation, there is some comfort for López and the Twins that the injury does not seem to be in the area of the rotator cuff or shoulder capsule, areas that can house much trickier injuries.
"Obviously you don’t want to hear anything arm related, shoulder related,” López said, “but yeah, there’s obviously more going on in the posterior cuff of the shoulder, the capsule. That’s where a little more delicate stuff [is]. Obviously, it’s also a relief that I never felt a big pop or anything. Which, I feel like that’s what could have happened had I been a little more stubborn and tried to pitch that bottom of the sixth inning.”
The Twins have multiple options if, as expected, they need to make a roster move with López. They will need a fifth starter as soon as Sunday at home against Toronto.
Simeon Woods Richardson, who began the year in the Twins' rotation, pitched Tuesday night for Triple-A St. Paul, so he could be on turn for Sunday. He turned in two quality starts after being optioned in favor of Zebby Matthews, but had a rough outing on Tuesday.
David Festa, who has also pitched in the Major League rotation this year, is scheduled to start Wednesday for St. Paul, but could conceivably be removed from that start or go on an alternate plan to allow him to be available on Sunday.
For now, it's a wait-and-see situation with López.