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Blue Jays 3, Twins 2: Uh, wow.

The Twins come back and tie it in the late innings, but lose in the 10th on a controversial (to put it mildly) call.

MLB: Toronto Blue Jays at Minnesota Twins Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

Honestly, there isn’t that much that happened in this game that was worth writing about until the 8th inning. The Twins offense was not able to figure out Kevin Gausman this time. Minnesota had base runners on in every inning besides the 4th against Gausman, but were unable to get any runs across. Toronto, meanwhile, scored two early runs in the 2nd and 3rd to jump out to a 2-0 lead. That was the score for quite a while, as Chris Archer rebounded after a shaky start to finish 5 innings and then Cole Sands turned in an outstanding long relief appearance to keep the game close. Starting in the 8th inning is where things got interesting. In the bottom of the inning, Jorge Polanco singled to start it off, then advanced to second on a balk by Toronto’s Yimi Garcia. Jose Miranda continued his recent string of success immediately after that, driving in Polanco to make it a one run game. In the 9th, the offense came through again. The inning started with Carlos Correa in the game as a pinch hitter, and he took one for the team and was hit by a pitch high and inside to put a runner on right away. He was immediately lifted for pinch runner Tim Beckham, and Gary Sanchez would get Beckham over to third with a base hit with one out. (Spoiler: There will be another play involving Sanchez and Beckham later.) Luis Arraez was able to bring home the tying run by hitting a single to right field, and the Twins got the winning run to 90 feet away after Jorge Polanco’s fielders choice groundout. However, Max Kepler grounded out as well, ensuring that this game would go to extra innings. In the top of the 10th, the inning started with Santiago Espinal flying out to Byron Buxton. Buxton threw a dart right on the money to third base, but Whit Merrifield just barely beat the tag and was safe. The next at bat is what got everyone talking around the MLB world. Cavan Biggio flew out to Tim Beckham in left, and Beckham made a perfect throw to Gary Sanchez, who tagged Merrifield at the plate. The call on the field was that Merrifield was out. Unsurprisingly, Toronto challenged, and they ended up winning the challenge and taking the lead. The argument made was that Sanchez was blocking Merrifield’s sliding lane. I’ll let you be the judge.

Personally, I’m not really sure what Gary’s supposed to do in this situation, and he even shuffles his feet to try and make sure to give Merrifield a lane. At any rate, the Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead after the out call was overturned, and the Twins weren’t able to answer in the home half of the 10th, making that our final score.
STUDS
Luis Arraez: 3-5, game tying single in the 9th.
Jorge Polanco: 2-5, run scored.
Jose Miranda: 2-5, RBI single in 8th.
Cole Sands: 3IP, 2H, 1K, 0R in relief.
DUDS
The MLB Replay Center in New York, NY.
Enjoy your Sunday evening, friends. Thanks as always to everyone who joined us in the game thread.