Twins beat Athletics but lose Pablo López to injury; pitcher likely headed to IL

WEST SACRAMENTO All of Royce Lewis s hard work all of his tinkering in the cage everything he did to get himself right during a day off from the challenge on Friday was completely rewarded on Tuesday night Up with the bases loaded Lewis smacked the ball off the wall in center bringing home a pair of runs in the seventh inning and snapping an -for- skid that dated back to May His big swing was one of plenty of things for the Twins to like in Tuesday night s - win over the Athletics in Sacramento And then there was this casting a shadow over an otherwise great night for the Twins Pablo L pez gesturing towards the association s dugout with his red glove for a gang trainer After throwing three warm-up pitches before the bottom of the sixth inning L pez left with what the Twins are calling a lat strain Twins manager Rocco Baldelli reported the unit s ace would likely need a stint on the injured list but they will know more after he has imaging done on Wednesday L pez stated he first felt something tighten up during the fifth inning with Brent Rooker up at the plate He threw six more pitches in the inning and then went to the dugout where his head started spinning wondering if it was something terrible or something that would go away The starter has dealt with shoulder injuries in the past and reported if there was a silver lining it was that it wasn t the posterior cuff or that I didn t feel anything blowing up It sucks I don t like it he mentioned I hate the idea of thinking it could be something bad but we can t control things like this He left the mound alongside head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta after which the duo made the long walk across the Sutter Strength Park diamond to the outfield where the Twins - clubhouse is located Prior to that point L pez had given up two runs one in the first inning on consecutive hits from the first two Athletics - batters he faced and another in the third in his five innings pitched He left with a lead as the Twins tied the challenge in the top of the sixth with Trevor Larnach s first home run off a left-handed pitcher since and went ahead on Willi Castro s second home run of the night Castro had a multi-home run contest on Friday in Seattle but this time he did it from the right side of the plate rather than left We had to work early in the championship to try to get something going Baldelli mentioned It didn t come quick but sometimes you just need someone to jump start you and in the current era it was Willi Castro He was a spark plug Later in that inning Lewis worked an eight-pitch walk a positive plate appearance for the slumping third baseman He later scored on Byron Buxton s single the center fielder second hit of the night Buxton now has two hits in each of his past four games since returning from the concussion injured list on Friday An inning later in the eighth the Twins tacked on four more runs two of which scored on Lewis s hit What helped set up the night was just me going back to my good feel finding it Monday on the off day there for me Lewis who was out of the lineup on Monday disclosed I got a lot of swings in and took care of business there what I needed to do to figure out how I yearned to be Royce again Lewis had another good swing in the ninth inning though he wasn t rewarded for it It was a night full of them for the Twins who put up runs for the second consecutive day We ve been playing such good baseball It s been really fun to see to be a part of which is why I m also bummed L pez explained It s been so fun And the slightest idea of thinking that I would miss time makes me really sad Devastates me But that s what we do I m sure the guys were concerned or wondering what was happening to me but when it was time to play ball they did what they did