Blue Jays 3, Twins 2: Rebel Bases Destroyed by Empire

Things started out well, but as they so often do in Twins Territory, they didn't end that way. Bottom of the 1st, Miguel Sano hit a sac fly to center field knocking in Brian Dozier. Bottom of the 3rd, Mauer hit what looked like an RBI double that scored Danny Santana, but Toronto challenged it and Joe Mauer was called out on second base. I checked with some Atlanta Braves fans who pointed out that SS Troy Tulowitzki clearly lifted Mauer off the bag and he should've been called safe there. So with that, the Twins had a nice two-run lead, no bigger than a womp rat really, but still a nice two-run lead.

Ervin Santana was cruising along for the first five innings, at one point retiring 15 out of 16 batters, then in the sixth, he walked Josh Donaldson. "Well, that's okay, could've been worse," and then they got worse. Edwin Encarnacion swung on a first pitch fastball and blasted it into the aptly named Home Run Porch and the nice two-run lead was gone forever. It was like a thousand voices cried out in terror at once and were suddenly silenced, except the place was packed with Blue Jay fans who seemed quite happy with the turn of events, so not really.

After that the defense had some nice plays that kept the Twins in the game. Top of the 9th, Danny Santana made this nice play to get the 3rd out with Tulo in scoring position.

In the 10th, the Jays threatened again, Jimmy Paredes on 3rd with two out and Eduardo Nunez gets to play the hero.

Tulo hit an RBI single in the top half of the 11th to give Toronto the lead. I still felt pretty good about the Twins chances at this point, but fate did not care about my "feels" one bit. Molitor pulled Kurt Suzuki in what would have been his last chance at hit #1,000 that night and subbed in Jorge Polanco who promptly grounded out. So with one out and no one on, Danny Santana decided to bunt. "NO! DON'T BUNT FOR F#%&'S SAKE!" I cried. Next pitch he tried to bunt again. "NO! GOD! NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" He finally gave up on bunting and managed to get a seeing-eye single that he almost tried to stretch into a double, Nick Punto style. "Whew! Just stay there." Nope. With Brian Dozier at bat, he tried to steal and got thrown out like a.... well, a nincompoop as the saying goes. Then Dozier struck out swinging to put the cherry atop that s#%& sundae of an inning. God I miss Gardy's doghouse.

Ervin Santana 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

Marco Estrada 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K

STUDS:

Ervin Santana (Any time a Twins pitcher goes 8 innings, he deserves a "stud" mark.

Kintzler and Jepsen 1.0 IP each with no damage done

Mauer and Sano for the only Twins runs

DUDS:

Too hard to pick just one or two. You know who you are!

ROBOT ROLL CALL!

Comment of the Game by Popular Recs

Daniel Carlson with "Goat Wins Go!!!"