MINNEAPOLIS — Venezuela born and major league raised by way of Miami, the Twins' newly signed starter Pablo López lasted four innings in Minnesota's cold during Saturday's 10-4 loss to last-place Washington at Target Field.
The Twins on Friday announced a second "Pablo Day" — in addition to his regular weekly start playfully called the same — with a four-year, $73.5 million contract extension that lasts through 2027.
On Saturday, López allowed five runs, eight hits, walked two and struck out six in four innings before just-recalled Simeon Woods Richardson, a 2020 U.S. Olympian, entered to start the fifth inning.
The Twins have lost six of their last seven games and are 1-9 in their last 10 games against the Nationals, dating to 2021.
Woods Richardson allowed a three-run, seventh-inning home run that stretched Washington's lead from 4-0 after two innings and 5-2 after five to 8-2 by the seventh.
The Twins scored twice in their seventh to make it 8-4 against a Nationals' team that is last in the NL East. The Nationals added two more runs in the ninth.
López made his fifth start with his new team — and the first since a news conference announcing the new contract the day before. He hit the first batter he faced with a pitch and allowed two runs despite striking out the side in that first inning.
In the first two innings alone, López hit a second batsman, delivered a wild pitch as well as a passed ball. By then, the Twins trailed 4-0 after the Nationals scored twice in each of the first two innings.
Woods Richardson surrendered singles to the first two batters he faced, then struck out the side consecutively himself.
In the seventh, Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams hit his first home run this season, into the right-field corner.
The temperature was 35 degrees — two degrees colder than Friday night's first pitch — with a cold 12 mph wind from the north-northwest when Lopez threw that first pitch.
The two games set and reset the Nationals' record for coldest game played in a franchise history that dates to 2005.
A crowd announced at 23,045 spectators came through the cold on Byron Buxton jersey giveaway day.
On Friday, López was asked if Minnesota weather was any consideration for a man born and raised in Venezuela and who pitched five seasons in Miami, too.
"Maybe tomorrow I'll have a better answer," López said. "I'll definitely look at the forecast and all that. But it didn't really matter to my decision and my willingness to commit myself to be a Minnesota Twin for a long time. It's one of those things that you can't control."
The Twins now have committed long term to arguably their three best players and none of them older than Buxton, who is 29.
Star shortstop Carlos Correa is 28 and López is 27.
"There's a lot of good young players, a lot of great character guys in there," Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. "When some of your best players also are the guys who are first to show up every day and are some of your best workers showing guys what the expectations are when you walk through the door, that's pretty special.
"I think Pablo and Carlos often are the first two in the clubhouse."
Buxton was Saturday's leadoff batter as the designated hitter and started the third inning with his team trailing 4-0 with a home run down the left-field line.
It came on a 1-1 pitch and was his third homer in this young season when he's getting on the lineup card as a DH while getting a day off roughly once a week. Correa batted third on Saturday and went 2 for 3 while Lopez made that fifth start.
"The guy pitching at the top of your rotation and the guys hitting at the top of your lineup, they give strength to everybody else," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "They make you stronger. They make you better. You look to them to do things for the team when you need them and to carry you at time.
"More than anything else, you're looking to them and this is a guy we're going to be looking towards to give everyone strength for a long while."
