The Twins salvage a game from the Blue Birds
The blue jay is a passerine bird in the Corvidae family. It is often described as noisy, bold, & aggressive (per Wikipedia sources)—a pretty apt description of its Canadian baseball namesake for the first two games of this series.
But today, the Minnesota Twins brought their slingshots and bulls-eyed the Toronto Blue Jays to salvage the finale.
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The Blue Jays got on the board first against Twins SP Joe Ryan this afternoon when a Superman-diving Matt Wallner couldn’t quite corral an Alan Rodan double to RF in the second inning, allowing Ernie Clement to score from first base with two outs.
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Fortunately, the Twins quickly jumped back into the momentum driver’s seat by loading the bases in the bottom of the 2nd and scoring runs on an RBI-groundout from Christian Vazquez & a sac fly from Trevor Larnach.
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Further runs were denied via a leaping grab from Vladdy Jr at 1B on a Wallner scorcher.
Photo by Graham Miller/MLB Photos via Getty Images
The back-and-forth continued in the 3rd when Alejandro Kirk singled in Bo Bichette just under a diving Kody Clemens to tie it at 3-apiece. Then noted Twin-killer George Springer was at it again, doubling home Guerrero to put the Blue Birds up 3-2.
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An immediate opportunity to continue lead-jumping was squandered by the hometown nine when Ty France was back-picked off 1B by TOR catcher Kirk on an odd, two-out double steal attempt to end the 3rd.
But after Ryan quickly got the boys back to the bat rack after T4, they responded by leading off B4 with solo home runs from Brooks Lee & Vazquez to pogo-stick out in front again, 4-3.
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Instead of surrendering the lead this time, the Twins finally added to it in B5 when a France double plated Royce Lewis (on base via pinch-hit BB) and Byron Buxton’s bases-full BB bumped in Brooks. 6-3 good guys!
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That’s where things stayed for the rest of the late-afternoon as the Twins bullpen—Stewart, Sands, Jax, & Duran—went into shutdown-mode.
Your Final: Minnesota Twins 6, Toronto Blue Jays 3.
A much-needed victory for a team reeling from the loss of Pablo Lopez (months) & Zebby Matthews (weeks—hopefully).
Up next: An off day Monday followed by three games with the Texas Rangers Tues-Thurs.
Studs
- Offense: 6 runs is a major achievement for this bunch
- Bullpen: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 ER
Duds
- Fielding: Wallner missed a ball, Correa threw one away, & Clemens had one go under his glove
- Baserunning: France picked off at 1B & Correa thrown out at home plate
Comment of the Game
- norff marvels at the Twins finally getting some clutch hits!