TAMPA -- Pablo López’s start on Wednesday afternoon looked like every other Pablo López start in 2025 -- until it didn’t look like anything we’ve seen from the ace right-hander this year.
After rolling through the first three innings against the Rays, López experienced arguably his worst frame of the season during the Twins’ 5-0 loss at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
The defeat handed Minnesota its first series loss since it dropped three out of four games in Cleveland from April 28-May 1.
López, who entered the series finale with a 2.31 ERA and had not allowed more than two earned runs in eight of his nine starts, looked like he would keep rolling on this hot afternoon in Florida as he breezed through those first three innings on 39 pitches.
Trouble then started brewing for López in the fourth. It began when he surrendered a solo home run on a 2-1 changeup to Brandon Lowe to open the inning. Three batters later and with a runner on first, López was taken deep again, this time on a 1-0 sinker to Junior Caminero.
It was a strange sight for a pitcher who had allowed one long ball through his previous 41 2/3 innings and three on the entire season.
“The common theme was I was behind in the count to both [hitters],” López said. “... I fell behind in the count, and you fall into that mentality that you don't want to give free passes. I think sometimes that takes a little conviction out of the pitch. So, I fell behind and tried to come back in the zone. Too much plate, too much zone, and I paid for it.”
Those homers also accounted for López’s first inning with at least three earned runs since his penultimate start of last season, a Sept. 22 outing versus the Red Sox when he allowed three runs in both the first and the third.
The Rays kept the pressure on, too, recording a single, a walk and three stolen bases later in the fourth. Although López was able to escape without any further damage, it took him 33 pitches to do so, his most in any inning this year. That’s a lot of work for any pitcher in any inning, but especially on a humid afternoon when the “feels like” temperature at first pitch was 101 degrees.
“It was extremely taxing,” López admitted. “Obviously, the two days leading up to today, I was aware that it was going to be very hot, very sunny today, and I tried to prepare for it. I tried to do all the little things I could do: swapping undershirts, pants, jerseys, the whole thing.
“But that’s just the nature of it. Their guy was dealing with the same thing, and he was able to go out of there and shove.”
The Rays’ guy was Drew Rasmussen. Trevor Larnach greeted him with a leadoff single in the top of the first, but after that, Rasmussen kept the Twins hitless through six innings and retired 18 of the next 19 batters he faced.
However, it’s not like the Twins’ bats were completely dormant. They recorded 15 hard-hit balls -- a batted ball with an exit velocity of 95 mph or greater. That’s tied for their fifth-most in a game this year. But all of that firm contact found a lot of leather.
“There will be better days than we just experienced out there,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “If we have the same offensive game the next time we step on the field, we’re going to score a few runs. There is no way we’re going to hit line drives and not score runs.”
No Twin may have had worse luck during this series than Royce Lewis, who went 0-for-4 Wednesday to drop his batting average to .138. He is in a 0-for-24 rut, but there is a healthy dose of misfortune baked in there.
Lewis flied out just shy of the right-field wall in the seventh inning and hit a ball to the edge of the warning track in left to end the game. His past six batted balls have all come off his bat at 95 mph or faster. Four of them topped 100 mph, and each of those had an expected batting average of .450 or better. Alas, Lewis’ actual batting average over his past six games is .000.
“I'm at a point where the hope is gone,” Lewis said jokingly. “I just do my job as best as I can, and if I keep hitting the ball hard, they say it's going to find a hole. But I haven't seen it yet. … When you're hitting the ball hard, ultimately, that's all you can do.”