Tag Archives: Pablo López

2023 Twins Game Logs

Game 21: nationals @ twins

17 Comments

Twenty games in the books. A full 1/8 of the season already done. How do the Twins look?

Well, they mostly look pretty good! The pitching has been excellent, led by a deep rotation and a pretty sharp high leverage bullpen. The Pablo Lopez trade has looked like a win/win, but the extension nudges it into the Twins' favor, I think. I loved the trade from the moment it was announced, and haven't seen anything to make me rethink it.

The hitting has been....less good, to be charitable. Gallo pretty much IS the offense at the moment. Getting Polanco back and sitting the next Denard Span Danny Santana squarely onto the bench will help, but a lot of the other pieces have to get moving. Jose Miranda has been slightly less valuable than Miguel Cabrera, which would be fantastic news....if it was 2012 - quite a bit less so in the year of our lord 2023.

Hosting the second worst team in baseball should help, but the non-Gallo contingent of the lineup is going to have to show up.

Luckily, one run is all they'll really need, because Pablo Lopez is in the mound, and he's going to be slinging zeroes all day. Let's go Twins!

2023 Twins Game Logs

Game 16: Twins at New York

32 Comments

Pablo Lopez!

Through three starts, he's been very very good and there's not a whole lot of things more fun to watch in baseball than a really good pitcher pitching really well for your team.

The Twins will either take three of four on the road in New York or end up with a series split in the most disappointing way by dropping the final two games of the series.

I have to say I like their chances with Pablo on the mound.

The Yankees are pitching some no name starter who probably doesn't even throw that hard (Gerrit Cole), so I'll just assume the Twins have the upper hand here.

2023 Twins Game Logs

2023 Game 6: Minnesota Twins at Miami Marlins

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Pablo López
vs
Jesús Luzardo

López returns to his original park right away this season for a rematch. We will see how well the Marlins remember his repertoire versus López adjusting his pitches this spring.

The Twins did a lot to increase rotation depth and after one turn through, it shows. The starters have a 1.03 ERA after five starts with 10.6 K/9. The relievers too have been great with a 1.53 ERA. The same has not been true for the batters. It was great to win two 2-0 games but I don't recommend it as a long-term strategy.

2023 Twins Game Logs

2023 Game 1 – MN Twins vs. KC Royals

67 Comments

Opening Day greetings from Minnesota, the land that spring forgot. Outside there are still two feet of snow on the ground and there's a winter storm watch until 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Game time conditions in Kansas City, though, should be more pleasant, about 68 degrees and breezy. There's a reason our home opener is never on actual Opening Day.

To say last season was disappointing for Twins fans would be an exercise in understatement. So many things that could have gone right went wrong, and it far too often involved severe bodily harm to key players. By most accounting, if not for a plethora of injuries late in the season the Twins would have won the division. But those are the vagaries of the game that make it so maddening and endearing, and keep us coming back for more year after year.

You generally put your ace starting pitcher on the mound for Opening Day. For Kansas City, that means Donald Zachary Greinke and his 223 career wins, 2882 strikeouts, and 3.42 ERA. It will be the seventh Opening Day start of his career. The Twins, I believe, selected their Opening Day starter by draw and Pablo Lopez pulled the short straw. He'll go to the mound for his first ever Opening Day start with 28 career wins, 489 strikeouts, and a lifetime 3.94 ERA under his belt.

I have no prognostications to offer for how this season will go for the Twins, my crystal ball is perpetually hazy these days. Conventional wisdom says don't be surprised to see the Twins and Guardians battling it out for the division title again come September, but every season starts with a big old question mark. If we're lucky along the way and enough things go right, we get to end it with a giant exclamation point.

Play ball!