Twins 8, Blue Jays 6: W’s from the Six

The Twins needed to have a strong series against the Blue Jays to get back on track after dropping 4 of 5 during the week in Detroit. After splitting the first two, the Twins offense had a tall task ahead of them facing Kevin Gausman, who had been solid all year long. They were able to jump on him early with 3 runs in the top of the first. Jorge Polanco reached on an error to open the scoring, then a Gio Urshela RBI groundout and a Jose Miranda RBI single made it 3-0 Minnesota after half an inning. In the bottom half of the first, George Springer did what he’s done lots and lots of other times and led off with a home run to immediately cut it to 3-1. It looked as if the Blue Jays would put a crooked number up of their own until Jermaine Palacios started what Dick Bremer described as “one of the best double plays you will ever see” to preserve the lead for the Twins. In the second inning, Minnesota would add on two more thanks to RBI singles from Palacios and Polanco to make it 5-1. Fast forwarding to the bottom of the 4th, Alejandro Kirk made it 5-2 with the second Toronto home run of the day. Devin Smeltzer would exit after the 4th inning, but he had a decent outing before making way for the bullpen. In the 7th, the Twins and Blue Jays would trade solo homers, with Trevor Larnach briefly extending the lead to 6-2 in the top of the inning and then Matt Chapman cutting it to 6-3 in the bottom of the inning. In the 8th, Gary Sanchez homered to left to extend the lead to 8-3. It looked like it was going to turn out to be a convincing win for the Twins at that point, but Toronto had other plans. With Tyler Duffey in for the bottom of the 9th, the Jays collected 4 hits and a walk, and one of those hits was a three run homer from Santiago Espinal. They were able to get the winning run to the plate in Bo Bichette, and Jovani Moran came in for the one out save, which he was able to achieve after Bichette grounded out. The Twins did just enough to win the series, and will head home to face the AL East leading Yankees starting on Tuesday.

STUDS
Luis Arraez: 4-4, reached base all 5 times up.

Gilberto Celestino: 3-5.
Trevor Larnach: 1-5, HR in 7th.
Gary Sanchez: 2-5, 2 run homer in 8th.
Jermaine Palacios: 1-3, RBI single in 2nd and part of two stellar double plays.

DUDS
NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!!

Enjoy your Sunday evening!