Twins rout Angels in Pablo López’s return to mound

Pablo L pez returned on Friday night and so too did the Twins offense Shut out in action during their rain-shortened loss a day earlier the Twins erupted for a season-high runs in help of L pez in their - conquest over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night at Target Field Leadoff hitter Edouard Julien started the Twins offense off on the right foot drawing a walk to lead off the bottom of the first inning Two more baserunners reached Luke Keaschall was hit by a pitch in the wrist area and later departed the competition and Trevor Larnach walked before Carlos Correa s sacrifice fly brought Julien home and gave the Twins their first lead of the encounter It was one of four walks on the day for Julien who scored three runs As a club the Twins took advantage of their free baserunners with five batters who walked plus one who was hit by a pitch coming around to points There were plenty of hits to speak of too Larnach Byron Buxton and Mickey Gasper collected two apiece For Gasper his fourth-inning single was the first RBI of his career and came as part of a six-run inning for the Twins Julien s bases-loaded walk forced in a run in the fourth and Buxton s sacrifice fly brought home another before Gasper s hit Larnach then broke open the match with a three-run home run his third in his past four games Buxton also hit a home run in the win along with a triple All the run promotion was more than enough for L pez who was pitching in his first meeting since April when he strained his right hamstring L pez - gave up two runs in his five-inning outing including one in the second that tied the match up at the time He allowed a second run in his last inning of work on an RBI single from Angels star Mike Trout But otherwise it was a strong return for the Twins top starter Related Articles Twins change up catchers playing time giving Ryan Jeffers more work Twins revealed Carson McCusker after the outfielder uncovered his power Twins shut out by White Sox in rain-shortened match Twins change plans place Willi Castro on injured list Twins legends Tony Oliva and Kent Hrbek are recovering from strokes suffered days apart