Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez was dominant.
Lopez allowed one run on five hits with two walks and three strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings in his start in Game 1 of the wild-card series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He shut down the Toronto bats, not allowing a single hit until giving up a single to Bo Bissett in the fourth inning.
The defense helped him, too. In the second inning, center fielder Michael A. Taylor threw out Alejandro Kirk at the plate, preventing a hit.
In the fourth, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a grounder to right fielder Max Kepler, who threw himself at the fence to make the catch.
In the same inning, with runners on first and second on Kevin Kiermaier’s infield hit, Bissett rounded third and made a nice throw home to shortstop Carlos Correa for the out.
The strikeouts weren’t plentiful, but they came when they were needed. After giving up a leadoff single to Matt Chapman in the fifth, he got Brandon Belt to fly out to end the inning with runners on second and third.
He gave up a run in the sixth. With runners on first and second, he gave up a single to left to Kiermeyer to put runners on the corners, his last of the game.온라인바카라
Reliever Louis Varland got Chapman to ground out to end the threat.
Meanwhile, Lopez made a splash by wearing a 2004 Johan Santana jersey to the game. 2004 was the last time Minnesota won a postseason game. Johan Santana was the starter that year.
Carrying on Santana’s momentum, he pitched well and gave the team a chance to end its postseason losing streak.
“He likes history and nostalgia,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. I think he gets a lot of energy from that. He’s also a jersey collector,” said Baldelli, who called Lopez a “great choice.