Blue Jays 9, Twins 3: Gibson pounded, offense still flat

Coming into this series, the Twins had a one-game lead over the Blue Jays for that second Wild Card slot. Four games later, the Twins are a .500 team and three games out of the Wild Card. Toronto laid it on this week, out-scoring the Twins 26-12, which is really just kind of sad on a bunch of levels.

Trevor Plouffe's two-run homer in the top of the fourth brought the Twins to within a pair at 4-2, but that was as good as it got all night. Minnesota had two at-bats with runners in scoring position. The Blue Jays had 18, and even better: they were 7-for-18 (.389) in those situations. It was Exhibit A in the Jays' blueprint for getting to, and winning in, October: beat the opposition into submission.

Aaron Hicks hit his sixth homer of the year with a solo shot in the top of the seventh, and also threw out Troy Tulowitzki at home when Blaine Boyer couldn't stem the bleeding in the bottom of the sixth. One run scored, but Tulowitzki would have been the second. Kurt Suzuki slapped the tag down, even though by that point the score was already 9-2.

Boyer, Brian Duensing, and Trevor May combined for three scoreless innings to wind things down, including an impressive ninth where May struck out the side.

Six of Toronto's 14 hits went for extra bases, and the Twins couldn't do much to figure out familiar foe Mark Buehrle. Minnesota is now 54-54, including an incredibly sad 5-14 since the All-Star break and 1-5 in August. It's unknown whether a better result at the trade deadline would have yielded better results, but it sure as shit heck couldn't have been worse.

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