Pablo Lopez’s shaky spring training continued in a 6-5 loss to the Red Sox on Sunday, which was overshadowed by an early hamstring strain from oft-injured Twins star Royce Lewis.
The big news of the day, unfortunately, was the injury to Lewis, who pulled up gimpy while running out a ground ball in the second inning. His status for Opening Day on March 27 is now in serious question, and it’s possible he’ll be out for a while if it’s a severe strain to his left hamstring.
Royce Lewis will get imaging done on his hamstring tomorrow, after which the Twins will know a lot more about his injury.
— Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand) March 16, 2025
Lopez, who will start opposite former teammate Sonny Gray in the opener against the Cardinals 11 days from now, hasn’t exactly had the spring he was hoping for. He entered Sunday’s game with a 9.35 ERA, and while he lowered that figure a bit against the Red Sox, he wasn’t overly sharp either.
Lopez surrendered two runs on three hits and a walk in a 29-pitch first inning. He bounced back nicely in the second and third, but then gave up solo home runs to Connor Wong and Ceddanne Rafaela in the fourth. Lopez stretched out to six innings and 87 pitches in this game, finishing with four earned runs allowed on seven hits and a walk. The good news is that he generated ten swings and misses and recorded eight strikeouts.
Across four appearances and 14.2 innings this spring, Lopez has a 7.98 ERA. He’s allowed 13 earned runs on 22 hits and eight walks, meaning his WHIP is north of 2.0. He does have 18 strikeouts, and it’s only spring training, but it’s something to monitor heading into the regular season. Home runs and hard contact were issues for Lopez last year as he recorded a 4.08 ERA, which was up from 3.66 in his All-Star 2023 season, his first year with the Twins.
The Twins’ offense was held scoreless with seven strikeouts through four innings against Red Sox starter Garrett Crochet, the dominant lefty who they acquired in a trade with the White Sox in December. A Ty France walk and Christian Vazquez single to open the fifth knocked Crochet out of the game and led to the Twins’ first run on an Austin Martin double.
The Red Sox expanded their lead to 6-1 on a two-run bomb by Rob Refsnyder off of Danny Coulombe in the top of the seventh. The Twins made things interesting, scoring two runs in the seventh and two in the eighth to make it a one-run game, but their comeback effort fell just short.
DaShawn Keirsey Jr. had two hits for the Twins. France, Vazquez, and Tanner Schobel all reached base twice on a hit and a walk. Minnesota’s top three hitters — Willi Castro, Carlos Correa, and Byron Buxton — went 0 for 9 with six strikeouts. Griffin Jax generated five whiffs on 15 pitches and struck out three in the eighth inning.
Eight games are left on the Twins’ spring training schedule.
Stay up to date on all things Twins by bookmarking Minnesota Twins On SI and subscribing to our YouTube channel.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
