NEW YORK — After his final start of the first half of the season, Pablo López expressed his disappointment with his body of work and how inconsistent he had been. But in his first three starts of the second half, López has been plenty consistent. He’s been consistently good.

López threw six innings on Wednesday, giving up two runs on just three hits while striking out seven in the Twins’ 8-3 victory over the New York Mets in the series finale at Citi Field, staving off a sweep after falling in the first two games.

“It’s been good the way I’ve been feeling on the mound,” López said. “It feels like myself. … A lot of times when you feel out of sync, that translates to pitches not doing what they’re supposed to do, location not being there. It’s been a lot of work, a lot of consistency with routines, feeling good, feeling strong, being healthy, hearing the feedback from every department within the organization.”

Lopez’s effort comes after two seven-inning starts in which he fanned seven in each of those, as well. Since the second half of the season started, López has given up five earned runs in 20 innings — and the results have much more closely resembled what the Twins had become used to seeing from the all-star pitcher.

Trevor Larnach robbed Francisco Lindor, the Mets’ leadoff hitter, of a home run in the first inning, meaning the only blemish on López’s line Wednesday was an 0-1 pitch to Mets third baseman Mark Vientos that he took out for his 16th home run of the season, a two-run shot an inning later.

That wiped out the early lead the Twins (59-48) had gained in the top half of the inning when Byron Buxton hit a solo home run.

But the Twins didn’t trail for long, jumping all over Mets (7-4) starter Luis Severino for five runs in the third. The inning started with Austin Martin singling and then stealing second before coming around to score on Larnach’s single.  Larnach then stole second himself and came around to score on Max Kepler’s hit.

“I think setting the guys in motion and setting them loose a little bit made some things happen for us and maybe turned some of the energy in our way and got us some bases,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And all that ends up mattering.”

Royce Lewis drove in Kepler before Matt Wallner hit a Severino changeup out of the park for two more runs.

Wallner just missed his second home run of the game a couple of innings later when center fielder Tyrone Taylor, who robbed Ryan Jeffers of a home run days earlier, got his glove on a ball that appeared to be going out. Wallner settled for a double and came around to score later in the inning.

“We were just stacking up hits,” Wallner said. “Any time you can put up five in an inning, I think you have a pretty good chance to win.”

Briefly

Kepler left the game with a head contusion and Baldelli said the right fielder went through preliminary concussion protocol tests with everything coming back OK.

In the fourth inning, Kepler was hit in the back of the helmet by a throw from Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez. Alvarez was attempting to get Brooks Lee at second base, and Kepler, who had just struck out, was charged with interference on the play. Lee was called out on the play.

Baldelli said he had never seen anything like the play — and was worried about the potential of it seeing it more frequently.

“It makes you ask the question: What if every time a guy struck out and walked across the plate and there was a man on … the catcher fired it off the guy and decided to just do that?” Baldelli said. “And I think the answer to the question is, ‘Yeah, I hope that doesn’t start happening.’”

Related Articles

Rookie David Festa has promising start in Twins’ loss

Twins add reliever, not starter, at trade deadline

After almost three years, Randy Dobnak returns to major leagues with Twins

Twins blown out by Mets in final game before trade deadline

Bally Sports North to return to Comcast on Thursday