MILWAUKEE – The difference between this season’s lengthy winning streak and last season – when the Minnesota Twins won 12 in a row, but ultimately missed the playoffs – per manager Rocco Baldelli, is pitching. And after Saturday’s decisive 7-0 win in Milwaukee, there’s also a matter of streak length.

Twins starter Pablo Lopez was brilliant, allowing just a pair of Brewers hits in six innings of work, as Minnesota cruised to a 13th consecutive victory, gaining a game on AL Central-leading Detroit in the process. Lopez is now 4-2 after striking out six Brewers on Saturday.

Designated hitter Ryan Jeffers homered, singled twice and doubled, bringing in a pair of runs as Minnesota scored in each of the first six innings, quieting Milwaukee’s second sellout audience of the season. With clean sheet wins in Baltimore on Thursday, in Milwaukee on Friday and again in Milwaukee on Saturday, the Twins have back-to-back-to-back shutouts for just the second time in team history. And the scoreless ninth gave them 33 consecutive innings without allowing a run, which is a new club record.

Minnesota got single-inning relief efforts from Justin Topa, Jorge Alcala and Kody Funderburke in the win.

Adding another dose of early inning offense to their resume, Jeffers hit Milwaukee starter Tobias Myers’ third pitch of the game deep to left center for an early 1-0 lead.

Lopez needed 23 pitches to escape the first inning without surrendering a run, and survived yet another Twins injury scare when Brewers leadoff hitter Brice Turang laced a hard shot back to the mound that hit Lopez in the upper right leg for an infield single. After a cursory examination by trainers, Lopez stayed in the game. Turang made it as far as third before Sal Frelick bounced out to second, ending the threat.

Royce Lewis led off the second and came in to score on a RBI single by Christian Vasquez for a 2-0 Twins lead. They made it 3-0 in the third when Jeffers’ leadoff double was one of four straight hits to start the inning. Ty France brought Jeffers home with a fly ball to deep right that Frelick grabbed with what appeared to be a diving catch, only to have the ball come out of his glove when he hit the warning track.

In the next at-bat, Kody Clemens singled to right, and Brooks Lee tried to score from second base but was tagged out at the plate on a nice throw by Frelick.

Minnesota kept up its one run per inning pace in the fourth, chasing Myers by stringing together a trio of two-out hits, with Trevor Larnach scoring on a RBI single to right by Lee. Myers allowed 11 hits and struck out four Twins in 3-⅔ innings for Milwaukee.

Myers’ replacement, Grant Anderson, saw Clemens send a ball over the right field fence to open the fifth inning, putting the Twins up 5-0. They stretched the lead to a half-dozen in the sixth when Larnach led off with a single and scored on Lee’s sacrifice fly.

Topa relieved Lopez in the seventh, pitching his way into, and out of a jam. With one out, Topa gave up a single, a walk and a hit batter to fill the bases with Brewers. But pinch hitter Isaac Collins popped out to the pitcher, and Turang hit a bouncer to first to end the threat.

The Twins tacked on a seventh run in their final at-bat when DaShawn Keirsey singled to score Clemens from third. Minnesota pounded out 18 hits in the win.

Myers fell to 1-1 with the loss.

The series finale is a 1:10 p.m. CDT start on Sunday with Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews making his first start of the season versus Milwaukee right-hander Freddy Peralta.

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