Pablo López is pitching so well this month, he's decided to crank up the degree of difficulty, just for practice.

OK, maybe not. But that's certainly how the All-Star righthander made it look on Friday, putting Pirates in scoring position in five of his six innings, then breaking their spirit with timely strikeouts or routine popups. López ran his scoreless-innings streak to 19 consecutive innings, and the Twins won for the fourth time in five games, 5-1 at Target Field.

"Pablo being Pablo, and just kind of getting it done, inning after inning," said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. "When the leadoff hitters get on, you have to really work hard to get through innings. There's no way around that, and he got through them."

Meanwhile, the Twins didn't put their leadoff hitter on base in the first seven innings, yet still managed to continue their hot hitting at home. They have scored at least three runs in each of their 12 games in Minnesota since the All-Star break, and five or more in nine of them. Yet they still felt a little victimized by Pirates pitching.

That's because Matt Wallner, who doubled and scored in the sixth inning to extend his Target Field hitting streak to five straight, was hit on his left hand as he swung at an Angel Perdomo fastball in the seventh. Wallner left the game in evident pain, but X-rays afterward found only a bruise, no broken bones.

"His bones are made of cement," Baldelli marveled. "I don't know how his hand isn't broken, because it looked like he got hit pretty squarely."

Wallner couldn't explain it, either. He couldn't hold the bat correctly after getting hit, he said, "and it feels a lot better now than I thought it would."

Two innings later, Pirates reliever Yohan Ramirez hit back-to-back Twins hitters, Jordan Luplow on the hand and Royce Lewis on the elbow. Both looked unhappy about being struck, and the announced crowd of 30,687 booed loudly, but neither player left the game.

The Pirates put runners on base in eight of the nine innings but scored only once, going 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position, 0-for-10 against López.

The Twins, on the other hand, reached base in six of their eight turns at bat, and collected three clutch hits in seven tries. The biggest hit of the night belonged to Michael A. Taylor, who smashed a two-out, fourth-inning changeup from Pittsburgh starter Andre Jackson 410 feet into the seats in left-center, a two-run blast to hand López a lead.

"It was down in the zone, but up enough," Taylor said. "He likes getting guys chasing that changeup down there. I just tried to zone him up."

The home run was Taylor's 16th of the season, and 12th while batting ninth in the Twins lineup, giving him a major part of a minor team record. It was the 20th home run by the bottom hitter in the Twins' batting order this season, which not only leads the major leagues but tied the franchise record set in 2019, when Byron Buxton, Jake Cave and Jonathan Schoop produced from the No. 9 spot.

In August, López has surrendered only one run in the 27 innings he has pitched, and none for three consecutive starts.

"It feels really good. It's one of those greedy outings where nothing came easy," López said. "It's fun, it's beautiful. You're able to execute your plan, get ahead, stay ahead. Days like today, you have to work your way through."

When you're not exactly sharp, he meant; López gave up six hits, two walks and, yes, hit a batter.

Pirates leadoff hitters reached base four times in six innings, and twice they got to second base with nobody out. Lopez had no clean innings, but it didn't matter — by using a changeup that got a remarkable 10 swing-and-misses, and a fastball that averaged 95.3 miles per hour, López ended the threats with strikeouts three times in the first four innings.