Blue Jays 6, Twins 1: Bring back the Morneau ceremony

A fun night at Target Field ends with a visiting victory.

In a lost season such as this, it would have been hard for Justin Morneau’s team Hall of Fame induction not to be the highlight of the night. That’s exactly how it played out; the guest of honor finished his speech to a hearty smattering of applause, and the Twins failed to stir up much excitement in the three hours that followed.

For Blue Jays fans, it was a heck of a night. Every win counts for Toronto, with mere days left in the season and two key Wild Card slots up for grabs. So you can be sure that fans north of the border were rejoicing as their stars put together a solid team win, racking up six runs on eleven hits while holding the home squad to just three knocks all night.

Marcus Semien made headlines with his 43rd homer of the year, as he approaches hallowed ground for power-hitting second basemen. Robbie Ray stayed on target for his award hopes, spinning six frames and allowing just the one run.

That RBI went to Mitch Garver tonight; Saturday evening’s cleanup hitter sac fly’d in Jorge Polanco in the first, then evidently went back to the dugout and said, “That’s about enough for us tonight, yeah?”

Starter/opener John Gant went three innings, staying mostly in the strike zone but still finding a way to walk a pair of Jays. He gets official credit for the loss, though both Luke Farrell and Kyle Barraclough had higher single-game ERAs in this one.

With the win, Toronto holds steady at two games back of the New York Yankees. They have one more game at Target Field, before departing back home to face the Bronx Bombers on their own turf. It’s bound to be an exciting series, involving no active Minnesota Twins whatsoever. Justin Morneau never would have let this happen.

STUDS:

3B Josh Donaldson (1-for-2, 2 BB)

RP Jovani Moran (2 IP, 4 K, 10 swings and misses)

DUDS:

Pretty much everybody else can make a case for duds

ROBOT ROLL CALL:

Tonight’s gamethread was intimate, atmospheric. You felt like you were really there, because certainly no one else was.