That was fun. Berrios was absolutely dominant, recording strikeouts with his four pitches. After the attack hit a speed bump last night, they came out right where they were in the winning streak, hitting all the pitchers the Twins sent to the pile.
José Berríos’s search to recover from a bad performance last time began unevenly at first. Luis Arraez hit his first shot on the ground in the middle for a single. Berríos was able to spin Byron Buxton, but gave up a long homer run to the dead center of Jorge Polanco, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead. It wasn’t a terrible throw, 95 on the black outside, but it wasn’t high enough and Polanco threw it. Jose recovered, K’ing Trevor Larnach and Jose Miranda.
The Jays were able to make a partial response at the end of the first. After Dylan Bundy put George Springer up and got Bo Bichette up 0-2 with a couple of good quick balls, he hung a curve that Bo took deep into the second fight on the left. Vladimir Guerrero jr. Teoscar Hernández unleashed a swerving effort from the left that the visitors’ keeper did well to tip wide.
Nick Gordon led the way with a quick free kick that went just wide of the post. Berríos managed to get Mark Contreras to swing with a steady diet of curved balls from his back foot, and then beat Ryan Jeffers with a double seam that he ran with his knees hard for his fifth K in the first round of the ‘order. Jermaine Palacios flew to the left to block Gordon in the second.
The Jays continued to struggle at the end of the second. Alejandro Kirk unleashed a swerving effort from the left that the visitors’ keeper did well to tip wide. he was walking. (Besides, when did Lourdes learn in the area? This year she is chasing 26.5% of the fields outside the area, according to Baseball Savant, for a staggering 7.3 percentage points over her career average and, of course, a little better than the league average. It’s a great record for a player who has struggled consistently in the past because of his poor focus. Cavan Biggio, hitting ninth, made a double on the right field line to baptize Kirk and tie it. moving Gurriel to third. That’s when things started to happen that would have made me very angry if I was a Twins fan. First, George Springer hit a swinging ball just off the edge of the field at the third baseline that Bundy grabbed in fair territory, allowing Springer to reach and Gurriel to score. Polanco then launched an extremely easy Bichette helicopter, sending Biggo to give Toronto a 4-2 lead. Guerrero reluctantly left the field.
The Twins put up a man at the end of the third, as Berríos hit Arraez with a back ball a little too literal. He bounced, hit Buxton looking, and got an almost double play on a grounder back in the Polanco pile. To close the entry, he absolutely beat Larnach, putting him 96 in the corner and finishing him off with two dive changes he couldn’t get to a foot.
The Jays lineup really started to play at the end of the inning. First Hernandez tripled in a walk down the right field power lane, then Kirk hit a 110 mph laser beam into the left field seats, giving the Jays a 6-2 lead. Espinal and Gurriel lined up singles, sandwiches around a Chapman pop-up, to knock Bundy out of the game. Right-hander Ian Hamilton came on in relief and struggled to find the plate, walking to Cavan Biggio to load the bases, but got a hard ground ball from Springer that the Twins were able to spin for a double play to end the inning. .
Miranda made a walk to open the fourth, but Espinal and Chapman (playing short on a change) gave a quick double play to the fast Gordon to clear the runner and Berríos put Contreras to finish the entry.
The pillar continued in the local half of the entrance. Bichette lined up a single, and then Vlad did Vlad’s stuff, turning 94 6 inches inside the top corner and somehow muscling it over the fence of the left field. So far 2022 has not lived up to the level it set last year, but it will still do something every two weeks that maybe half a dozen living people can do. Hamilton was able to stop the bleeding there, allowing a double to Espinal, but got a line, a flight and a land from Hernandez, Kirk and Chapman, respectively.
Jeffers reinforced how impressive Vlad’s swing was when he went up to start the fifth, swinging almost exactly the same throw and barely hitting a soft short liner for the first out. Berríos fanned out Palacios and managed to routinely land in front of Arraez to complete an easy entry. The bottom of the entrance was equally quiet as Hamilton withdrew Gurriel, Biggio and Springer by order.
Berríos launched his second walk of the afternoon to put Buxton at the top of the sixth, but it was no problem. Polanco came out of foul territory behind the bag from third base, Larnach fell victim for the third time to Jose’s tenth strike of the game, and Miranda took second to make the total 11.
Yennier Cano took over from Minnesota at the end of the sixth. The Jays threatened to increase their lead, with Teoscar Hernandez coming in with a single with a ball on the ground, stealing the second, and moving to third in a wild throw that was ball four for Kirk (who would go second in another wild release). Contreras made a great block, though, and was able to block.
In the seventh, Berríos finished with a dominant start, receiving a height from Larnach (who was probably happy to avoid the embarrassment hat), beating Contreras to tie his career at 12 and then beat Jeffers to score the your best personal brand. 13.
In the lower half, Chapman made an initial hike to complete the set of all the Jays batters who reached base on the day. Gurriel added a single to the field and Biggio also picked up a walk to load Springer’s bases for the second time today. This time he did it a little better, scoring Chapman with a sack throw to the left, but he also needed a ball with his foot. Cano put Bichette and Guerrero to a stop there, but the Jays were able to reach 9 runs for the third time this season.
Julian Merryweather came in to manage the eighth, making his second straight game, and Zimmer took over in the middle of Springer. Merryweather looked good. He awarded a ground ball single to Palacios and another single inside the field to Gilberto Celestino (Polanco’s pinch) in a high, slow chopper over the pile, but put Arraez in, made a pop out of Buxton and a ground out of Gary Sánchez (pinch for Larnach) to avoid giving up any race.
The Twins turned to Juan Minaya to work the lower part of the eighth. Hernandez picked up his third hit of the afternoon with a single from the left, and after a Kirk outing, Espinal took a walk and Chapman pulled his second shot off the shoulder of the week to load the bases. Gurriel then scored a single on the left to charge in the first two, and Biggio turned a gentle turn against the change to take Chapman and set a new season high for the Jays ’12-run offense. Zimmer was hit with a ball six inches below the area (I guess Angel Hernandez had reservations for dinner) and Raimel Tapia, batting for Bichette, left out.
Trent Thornton came in to close it. He has a forward double to Miranda, but got a one-on-one jump to Espinal (playing short due to some offensive moves), a shot to Biggio (second player) and put Jeffers to end the game.
Jays of the Day: Berríos (0.018) somehow did not have the number, but today has been the protagonist of the program. Bichette (0.190), Biggo (0.147) and Kirk (0.102) reached the number
Suck: Nobody. Every pitcher did his job, every batsman landed at the base at least once.
The Jays close out the series tomorrow at 1:37 p.m. Kevin Gausman will face Devin Smeltzer to win the series.