Twins 8, Blue Jays 2: Tyler Duffey, Adalberto Mejia impress with pitches

Today’s game was almost Tyler Duffey versus Adalberto Mejia versus former-Twin Francisco Liriano, and luckily for the Twins, Liriano came out on bottom.

That’s right—Francisco Liriano was the starter for the Jays today, and the Twins were able to get to him a bit. ByungHo Park had Frankie’s number, launching a mammoth dong off him shortly before he was pulled in the fifth inning. Jorge Polanco also got a double off the old friend.

Speaking of mammoth dongs, though, Park’s wasn’t the only for the Twins. Miguel Sano also hit a monstrous moon-shot in the sixth, which apparently some of the Twins beat writers never even saw land.

Big dongs are all fun and good, but the Twins are still looking for a fifth starter too, and both candidates today made strong arguments for their case. Duffey was the official starter, and pitched five shutout innings before Mejia came in to finish out the game.

Though he did give up back-to-back home runs, it was an impressive outing for Mejia, who gave only one other hit and one walk in his four innings of work. An interesting note about the two home runs too: He gave them up in the eighth inning, just as Eddy Rodriguez replaced John Ryan Murphy at catcher...

If you’re wondering what Byron Buxton was up to today, the answer is apparently Byron Buxton-things.

All-in-all, a good day for the Twins.

Notes

• Brian Dozier apparently took the day to work on his base stealing skills. He swiped two bags and got caught stealing once.
• Ben Paulsen left the game due to injury after Blue Jay Jonathan Davis accidentally stepped on his foot. (Hey Twins: Stop letting people walk all over you!)
• John Ryan Murphy went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts today at the plate. He’s hitting just .174 this spring.