MINNEAPOLIS — Pablo López spent the last few days telling reporters about how much he learned from Sonny Gray, his co-ace last year who helped carry the Twins to their first postseason series victory in 21 years.

On Saturday night, López decided to show it.

López spun seven scoreless innings in a masterful performance and Trevor Larnach added two homers to lift the Twins to a 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Target Field. López permitted four hits and one walk while striking out nine.

Gray failed to match his counterpart, yielding seven hits and five runs across six innings.

The second inning was a tone setter for López. The Cardinals had two runners in scoring position with one out after a Nolan Arenado single and a Lars Nootbar double. Neither ball was crushed, but it was an early gut check moment.

López turned to his fastball for eight of his next nine pitches, and he stranded the two runners with back-to-back strikeouts against Paul Goldschmidt and Pedro Pagés. The crowd of 35,183 roared with approval.

Twins catcher Christian Vázquez helped López escape a scoring threat in the third inning. Victor Scott II, the second-fastest runner in the majors according to Statcast, led off the inning with a double down the right-field line.

Two pitches after Scott moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, Alec Burleson whiffed on an elevated fastball and Vázquez rifled a throw to third base to pick off Scott. Vázquez, who flashed a look and a nod at third baseman Royce Lewis before the pitch, pumped his fist in celebration.

López, who threw a first-pitch fastball to 22 of his 26 batters, was relentless. He generated swings and misses with all the pitches in his repertoire. He reached only a pair of three-ball counts. This was the version of López that dominated in the postseason last year.

In seven starts since the all-star break, López has posted a 2.25 ERA over 44 innings. It’s exactly what the Twins need with starting pitchers Joe Ryan and Chris Paddack on the injured list and three rookies in the rotation.

López gave up a leadoff double to Goldschmidt in the fifth inning, then retired nine of his final 10 batters with only one ball leaving the infield. He exited with a 13-inning scoreless streak.

Gray started his outing by striking out the side in 10 pitches, but things went downhill during a four-run third inning. The Twins had five consecutive batters reach base. Austin Martin started the rally with a hustle double on a soft liner he poked down the first-base line and Willi Castro followed with a walk.

Larnach, who saw two cutters before he struck out on a sweepy slider in the first inning, hammered an elevated cutter over the right-field wall for a three-run homer. Larnach broke into a wide smile as he greeted teammates around home plate.

After taking a 3-0 lead, Royce Lewis and Matt Wallner responded with back-to-back singles. Lewis scored on a fielder’s choice ground ball, and Scott, the center fielder, saved the inning from snowballing further when he made a leaping catch in front of the center field wall to rob Jose Miranda from a likely run-scoring double.

In the fifth inning, it was Larnach again on another cutter. This time Gray’s cutter caught the heart of the plate and Larnach drove it over the fence in center field for the first multihomer game in his big-league career. Gray has yielded 20 homers this season, a single-season career high.

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