López outduels his old mate Gray

TWINS 6, CARDINALS 0

Larnach has his first two-homer game

Minnesota’s Austin Martin, right, slides hard into second base, and St. Louis’ Masyn Winn, for a double in the third inning Saturday night at Target Field. DAVID BERDING — GETTY IMAGES

Twins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez threw seven shutout innings, limiting the Cardinals to four hits while striking out nine on Saturday night in Minneapolis. ABBIE PARR — ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Betsy Helfand

bhelfand@pioneerpress.com

The matchup certainly suggested a potential pitcher’s duel between the two men who led the Twins’ rotation last season, Pablo López and Sonny Gray.

Trevor Larnach did his best to make sure that wasn’t the case on Saturday night.

Larnach welcomed his former teammate back by blasting a pair of home runs, helping the Twins to 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on a night López outdueled Gray by throwing seven scoreless frames at Target Field.

“There’s always that competitive edge like, ‘I want to outdo my friend. I want to outdo my former teammate,’ ” López said. “For the most part, I blocked that out. I know we’re going up against a good pitcher. So in a way, I do have to lock in, making sure I’m making good pitches because any other night, Sonny isn’t allowing a lot of hits, a lot of runs.”

But he did on Saturday.

Gray, who finished second in Cy Young Award voting last year, was especially good at keeping the ball in the ballpark, allowing just eight home runs in 184 innings in 2023. In 141 2/3 innings this year, the starter has now given up 20 long balls.

No. 19 came in the third inning when, after Austin Martin doubled and Willi Castro drew a walk, Larnach got ahold of a cutter and sent it out to right field. In his next at-bat, the outfielder hit his second home run 419 feet out to center field. It’s the first multi-home run game of Larnach’s career.

“The first at-bat, in our 6:40 (p.m.), 6:10 games, it’s so hard to see,” said Larnach, who struck out his first time against Gray. “As the game goes on and the visual gets a little better, you can get a flow for how things are going and the rhythm with the pitcher.”

In his return to Target Field, Gray, who departed in free agency after two years with the Twins (72-57), lasted six innings and gave up five runs — the other run that Larnach was not responsible for came in the third on a Max Kepler groundout that plated Royce Lewis. Matt Wallner later homered.

That was plenty of run support for López, who appeared to be amped up for his start against his former teammate. López averaged 96.4 miles per hour with his four-seam fastball, which was 1.6 mph faster than his season average. He also got 21 swings and misses, a season best.

“It’s always a good day when the fastball is pumping. It’s always a good feeling,” López said. “It’s no lie when we have a little extra life on it, it can make your life a little more fun when you’re on the mound.”

He had to work through some trouble — twice he pitched around leadoff doubles, and once he stranded a pair of runners in scoring position — but Lopez flashed what manager Rocco Baldelli said was “probably the best” stuff he has had all season in a nine-strikeout effort.

The Cardinals (64-65) managed just four hits off López as the Twins’ top starter strung together his second consecutive scoreless outing.

His catcher, Christian Vázquez, helped preserve the shutout at a key moment of the game, picking Victor Scott II off of third base in the top of the third, before the Twins broke through in the bottom half of the inning.

“We played a nice ball game right there,” Baldelli said. “Pablo leads the way with the way he took the mound. He pitched, worked through the very beginning of the game, found himself, and then he was pretty lights out.”