López has strong return, but Twins fall to Royals in Kansas City – Twin Cities

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As if he already didn’t have a lot on his mind pitching in the majors for the first time in three months, Pablo López also noted that Friday was the 18th anniversary of his mother’s death.

Considering everything, López excelled for the Minnesota Twins in a 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

López said it was “an emotional day overall. But a long time coming.”

The Twins fell for the fifth straight time, they’re 28-52 since June 5, and their overall record dropped to 62-79. But they’re also focusing more on individual development and putting themselves in good position for next season after moving 11 players at the trade deadline.

Getting their ace back on the mound counts as a big win.

“He came out and reminded us all of all the great things that he does,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

Making his first start with the Twins since June 3 because of a shoulder muscle injury, López allowed two runs, six hits and a walk to go with four strikeouts over six innings. He reached 96.1 mph on his four-seam fastball and averaged 94.3 mph, two-tenths below his season average. He also registered 10 misses on 46 swings by Royals batters, throwing 92 pitches overall.

López said it felt torturous to be away from pitching for 13 1/2 weeks after sustaining a Grade 2 strain of the teres major in his right shoulder, a similar injury to what Joe Ryan had a season ago.

“I hated it, hated it,” said López, who hadn’t missed a start in his first two seasons with the Twins.

“Being in rehab, it’s like psychological warfare,” López continued. “You feel like you’re in everyone’s way. You feel like you can’t contribute. I may be exaggerating with this word, but you feel like you’re useless. You can’t do anything other than moral support, be there to mentor some of the other people. But you can’t really contribute in a tangible way.”

López conceded that while he’s medically 100% to pitch, doctors told him that he won’t feel 100% for perhaps three more months.

“From a medical standpoint, the thing was, you’re going to feel good, ready, strong enough to pitch,” said López, a son of two doctors. “But really the tissue, ligament, tendon, muscle, whatever it is, it’s not going to be all the way healed up for like six months.”

López said he had to calm himself in the beginning, even though he retired the first two batters.

“I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t having a lot of, like, heart-beating-fast moments in that first inning,” López said.

López allowed a two-run homer to Maikel Garcia in the third — bad location on a sweeper, López said — but he pitched out of a jam in the sixth with the help of his defense.

After the first two batters reached, catcher Jhonny Pereda picked Garcia off second base with a perfect throw plus a great tag by Brooks Lee. López followed by striking out Adam Frazier and getting weak contact by Michael Massey, who popped to Lee at short.

López smacked his own glove and did likewise to Pereda’s mitt as he walked off the mound. He also lauded Pereda for getting to Kauffman Stadium on short notice and contributing after Ryan Jeffers was put in limbo by a head contusion sustained the day before.

Pereda was added before the game from Triple-A St. Paul, where he happened to catch two of López’s recent injury rehab starts. He’s also a former summer league teammate of López’s in Venezuela. The familiarity seemed to help bring cohesion to López’s performance. López told Baldelli to have confidence in Pereda.

“A big part of the job is made easier, to call pitches,” Pereda said. “We talked a lot when he was rehabbing in Triple-A, so it was pretty easy today because we were on the same page.”

Pereda, who played 17 games with the Athletics earlier in the season, also hit an RBI double and drew a walk in his Twins debut.

Jeffers exited early in the game Thursday against the White Sox, and the Twins wanted to be prudent by resting him in the series opener against the Royals. Jeffers isn’t in concussion protocol, the Twins said.

López isn’t all the way back, but he felt great about this step toward the goal.

“If anything, my stuff felt a little better as the game went on,” López said. “Fastball had good life. I thought we were hitting the lines we were supposed to hit.”