MINNEAPOLIS – For the Athletics to have any success in the season’s final two months, Jacob Lopez will have to be a big part of the picture.
It’ll help if he turns in more starts as he did against the Twins on Friday.
Lopez threw five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and four walks while striking out four as the Athletics beat the Twins, 2-0, at Target Field.
“I'll take a scoreless outing every time,” said Lopez, who has been working on limiting his pitch count and going deeper in games. “And the bullpen had my back today, throwing four scoreless innings ... so I think it’s just a good team win.”
Friday’s outing was a promising step forward for Lopez, who began the season in the Athletics’ starting rotation but was demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas on June 1 after posting a 6.75 ERA with 33 walks and 38 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings.
The 28-year-old lefty returned to make a couple of appearances -- one in relief, one as an opener -- before the All-Star break. He was back in the rotation after the Athletics traded Aaron Civale, and Lopez responded by giving up two earned runs in 4 1/3 innings on Sunday against the Nationals before backing it up with Friday’s scoreless outing.
Of course, success can take on many appearances in baseball. But even if the Athletics’ recent run of poor play (they’re 6-18 in their last 24 games) has likely taken them out of the playoff race for 2026, there’s always next year, and a strong showing in August and September can do wonders for a young player’s confidence when the next season rolls around.
“I'm just trying to forget about the beginning of the year -- you know, those 10 starts that I just didn't feel good,” Lopez said. “So it's been good to have the momentum go in a positive direction and just try and finish the season strong.”
Both of Friday’s starters had nice nights, as neither team had a hit until the fifth inning. Tommy White’s one-out double off Twins starter Zebby Matthews led to Lawrence Butler’s sacrifice fly that scored Donovan Walton with the game’s first run.
Twins left fielder Austin Martin hit a one-out double in the fifth for their first hit, but Lopez stranded him there by retiring the final two Twins hitters of the inning.
Tyler Soderstrom’s perfectly placed single on a hit-and-run play drove in Henry Bolte and gave the Athletics a 2-0 lead in the sixth.
The Twins tried to rally, but some timely defense in the sixth and eighth innings kept them off the board. Geoff Hartlieb replaced Lopez and walked three of the four batters he faced, but José Suarez got Brooks Lee to hit a chopper right at the third-base bag, and White turned it into an easy 5-3 double play to escape the jam.
“That pitch was executed perfectly,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “We're looking for a ground ball to the left side to turn a double play with Lee up, and Suarez just executed a great back-foot slider that was put on the ground and Tommy made a nice play. So we put ourselves in a jam, and he pitched us out of it on that one. “
Fellow relievers Elvis Alvarado and Hogan Harris also took advantage of a couple ground balls hit right at infielders to start double plays that kept the Twins off the scoreboard.
But the story of the night was Lopez, who looked a lot more like the guy who pitched so well in stretches last year, when he went 7-7 with a 4.08 ERA.
“Weird, funky angle, first-base side. Today that wasn’t fun to hit off of,” Lee said. “I’ve seen him relatively well, but for whatever reason tonight, you know, he had the fastball working up top, he was locating. And then threw the cutter, and I felt like a lot of us were under it, especially early on. We hit a few balls hard, but they got caught.”