MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Trade acquisition Jorge López earned his first save with his new team, newcomer Sandy León drove in two runs and the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 4-1 Wednesday.
Carlos Correa and Gio Urshela added RBIs for the Twins, whose lead in the American League Central remains one game over Cleveland.
Entering to a nice ovation, López, an All-Star acquired Tuesday from Baltimore, earned his 20th save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
“It’s a time where to just even think about being here, being in that spot, to be in first, it’s just fun. Really fun to watch these guys daily. I love it,” López said.
He needed just seven pitches, including a three-pitch strikeout of Eric Haase.
“I love to go out there, be quick. If it’s not, we battle,” López said.
López’s outing came after Minnesota starter Joe Ryan bounced back from a career-worst outing with five mostly solid innings. Michael Fulmer then pitched a scoreless inning in his Twins debut against the team from which he was traded Tuesday, before Caleb Thielbar and Jhoan Duran each tossed a scoreless frame.
“We saw some guys with some electric stuff. They made good pitches. They threw the ball the way they wanted to,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We saw some elite sliders from Fulmer. We saw López go out and have as dominant and clean of an inning as you want to see. It’s exciting to turn the ball over to those guys, let them do their thing out there. But that’s really good looking stuff from our bullpen and Joe Ryan.”
Rocked on Saturday in San Diego, allowing 10 earned runs and five home runs in 4 2/3 innings, Ryan (8-4) tied a season high with nine strikeouts — also April 27 vs. Detroit — and allowed three hits as he again dominated the…
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