Blue Jays 10, Twins 8: Early Lead Falls Apart

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Twins turned to Simeon Woods Richardson, and despite putting up eight runs and knocking Kevin Gausman out of the game early, they simply fell apart. With low-leverage bullpen options unable to do their jobs, and a lineup that went dormant after the 4th inning, Minnesota wasn't able to hang on.

Image courtesy of © Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Simeon Woods Richardson 4.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K (91 pitches, 61 strikes, 10 whiffs)
Home Runs: Carlos Santana (6), Ryan Jeffers (9)
Bottom 3 WPA: Steven Okert (-.246), Caleb Thielbar (-.193), Jay Jackson (-.119)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Getting to Gausman
Facing last year’s third place finisher in the American League Cy Young race, the Twins found themselves facing yet another good arm this week. Similar to what they did with the Mariners Logan Gilbert, Rocco Baldelli’s lineup got to him quickly.

Edouard Julien led off the game with a base hit, and after strikeouts by Trevor Larnach and Ryan Jeffers , Minnesota went to work with two outs. Max Kepler singled and Carlos Correa drove in the game’s first run. Alex Kirilloff ripped a single to left field, and Davis Schneider allowed it to get by him, going to the wall. Both Correa and Kepler scored on the play. After the first frame, it was already a 3-0 game.

In the 2nd inning Carlos Santana led off with a double that a diving Daulton Varsho couldn’t come up with. Minnesota cashed him in when Larnach ripped an opposite-field single and made it a 4-0 game.

With former Twins pitcher Jose Berrios being interviewed on the broadcast, and talking about his pitcher of the month honors, Bo Bichette got Simeon Woods Richardson for a solo home run to put Toronto on the board. The Blue Jays ace talked glowingly about Correa and the time they spent playing with and against each other in Puerto Rico growing up.

Constant Pressure
Leading off the top of the 3rd inning with a walk, Correa immediately made Gausman work with traffic again. After a Kirilloff strikeout, Willi Castro crushed a ball high up off the right field wall for a double, putting runners at second and third base with just one out. Already over 70 pitches and facing Santana, the Minnesota first baseman went up in the zone and blasted a three-run homer to dead center.

Stealing second base following his single, Julien was in scoring position for Larnach’s single but was cut down at home on a throw by Schneider. Still, up 7-1 in just the 3rd inning, Minnesota had put Gausman and the Blue Jays pitching staff in a tough spot. Back-to-back doubles from Schneider and Varsho plated a run for Toronto to start their half of the 3rd inning. A ripped single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drove in another run, and the Blue Jays had climbed back within 7-3.

Gausman didn’t return for the 4th inning, and Minnesota’s ownership of him continues. Crushing him for 15 runs on 20 hits over the course of his last three starts, (11 ⅔ innings) they clearly have his number. Ryan Jeffers made sure to welcome Zach Pop to the game with his ninth home run of the season.

Blue Jays Battle Back
With Woods Richardson struggling to get outs in the 5th inning, allowing a home run to Schneider and single to Guerrero Jr., Baldelli brought Cole Sands in to take over. After getting Justin Turner to fly out, Sands served up a two-run shot to Danny Jansen and Minnesota’s lead was 8-6.

The Twins went down in order to open up the 6th inning, and Sands found more trouble in the bottom half. Cavan Biggio reached on a one-out single and then Schneider made it first and third with two outs. Steven Okert was called upon to get the final out and shut down the threat. He immediately walked Varsho and loaded the bases. A 3-for-3 Guerrero Jr. stepped in and singled to left field, scoring a pair, and tying the ball game.

After leading by 8-3 through four innings, Minnesota was headed to the 7th inning stretch tied and needing to keep the Blue Jays off the board. Jay Jackson came on and was every bit as shaky as Okert, and left a mess for Caleb Thielbar. Ernie Clement singled after Thielbar walked George Springer to load the bases, and the Blue Jays took their first lead of the game, 9-8. Struggling to find the zone at all, Thielbar went to ten pitches against Schneider before the outfielder lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 10-8.

Walking Varsho to load the bases, Thielbar threw just 12 strikes in his 25 pitches and got only a single out. Josh Staumont was on as the third reliever of the inning. Facing Guerrero Jr., he stopped the bleeding but Minnesota now had work to do. 

Minnesota Limps to the End
Following an ugly and ineffective 7th inning for Twins pitching, Minnesota needed the lineup to come up and show some life. Instead they went down in order against Blue Jays Yimi Garcia on just nine pitches and immediately took the field again. With Staumont allowing another hit to Jansen in the 8th inning, the 16 hits were a season worst surrendered by the Twins. Using five of their eight relievers, with both Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax down, the group will be a bit taxed heading into Sunday.

Facing Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano needed a pair to extend the game, Minnesota was in a bad spot. The Twins lineup had gone dormant since the 5th inning, and Romano stepped in during a stretch of 13-straight hitters going down in order. He got both Larnach and Jeffers on strikes, the 11th and 12th Minnesota punchouts of the day. Thankfully Kepler doubled to stop the streak of retired batters at 15, and reaching base brought Correa to the plate as the tying run. He popped out to first base and a game that should have been a sure win ended in a loss.

Notes
Minnesota came into Sunday’s contest with a 16-2 record in their last 18 games. While the lineup is doing plenty of good work, it’s the starting staff that has been nothing short of incredible. While strikeouts were the name of the game for the lineup early, the pitching staff has become the good kind of strikeout dominant.

What’s Next? 
Bailey Ober takes the ball for the Twins on Sunday looking for a series win against Alek Manoah and the Blue Jays. They’ll get a well deserved off day on Monday as they return home to face the New York Yankees

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[DocBauer]

There will be bad days at the office...err...ballpark. Sometimes things just go crazy and blow up in a way you never saw happening. You can't and will never win them all.

But man....that was embarrassing.

[John Bonnes]

One fact Kris Atteberry pointed out in the ninth before Kepler's single is that after the fourth inning, the Twins had only seen 42 pitches between their 14 straight retired batters. And Toronto's bullpen has not been very good (though some of the guys the Twins saw have been better). The bullpen will be blamed, but this was a team loss. The lineup absolutely flailed about after the 4th. 

[ashbury]

The Twins: Great bullpen?  Or, GREATEST bullpen?

[darwin22]

An absolutely atrocious loss.  I'm 100% DONE with Jackson. Needs to be DFA'ed the second Topa is activated. Okert is close behind.  Sands coming back to earth after a great start.  Praying Stewart can come off IL as soon as possible.

[Daniel Anderson]

Frustrating that the bullpen seems to be giving up a lot of walks after going 0 - 2. Both Okert and Thielbar walked Varsho that way, and with scorching hot Vlad Jr. batting next it didn't work too well. Too bad, their approach to hitting Gausman was excellent.

[Peter]

How do twins bounce back from this crushing devastating unacceptable loss??? Jays had no business winning today😥😭

[Hubie29]

4 minutes ago, Peter said:

How do twins bounce back from this crushing devastating unacceptable loss??? Jays had no business winning today😥😭

Our bullpen will lose alot more than just today the way it is constructed.  It was addressed this off-season with mediocre to terrible additions.

[Doctor Gast]

IMO the game went sideways when the ump stole 2 strikes from SWR that should have been a SO but that ordeal force SWR to serve up a hittable pitch that started everything. that forced SWR out. TOR pitcher got a gift strike that was clearly a ball. If we had an electronic strike zone the game would have been different.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

I totally drank the Kool Aid when it came to the bullpen but in hindsight, the Twins patched together a bunch of DFA candidates and sold us a bill of goods. This pen is bad. Really bad. And they need to be smart and cut their losses before it costs them more games.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Varland and Alcala for Jackson and Okert. Louie and Alcala have their issues but both have more arm talent and give the Twins a higher ceiling if they are pitching well.

[mnfireman]

Alacala has to wait a few more days, unless there is an IL move made. Varland up for tomorrow's game would be all right with me, but don't know what the corresponding move would be/who has options left. I don't think a DFA of a BP arm will happen until Monday at the earliest, if at all.

[chinmusic]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

How do twins bounce back from this crushing devastating unacceptable loss???

Facing Alek Manoah tomorrow might be just the ticket.

[tony&rodney]

Games like this happen almost every year to every team. Unless the Twins flail and become futile in the next week, we can just flush it.

[ChermesZ]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

IMO the game went sideways when the ump stole 2 strikes from SWR that should have been a SO but that ordeal force SWR to serve up a hittable pitch that started everything. that forced SWR out. TOR pitcher got a gift strike that was clearly a ball. If we had an electronic strike zone the game would have been different.

Phil Cuzzi strikes again.

[Parfigliano]

27 minutes ago, chinmusic said:

Facing Alek Manoah tomorrow might be just the ticket.

He has been not good.

[chinmusic]

8 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

He has been not good.

 

8 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

He has been not good.

Yes. His struggles have been epic.

I have visions of a line similar to Gausman's today.

We shall see. 

In any case, it should be an intriguing rubber match.

Go Twins!

[adjacent]

Many mentioned this before. The reliable part of the bullpen is Duran, Jax?, and.?????😰

[David HK]

Cripe!  We gave that one away!

Mr. Jackson, et. al.- holy moley, what a stink-o-rama.

At least I was able to catch the White Sox SWEEP of Cleveland! *Edit*- (beg pardon, still one more game tmw.)

Mike (the guy I REALLY wanted to pick up this winter) Clevinger shut them down!

Then 'closer' John Brebbia (and guy you thought you saw at the laundromat last week) blew them down in the 9th!

Still a half a buck out, but in danger of being passed by the Royals.  

First place if we didn't have that El Gasolino bullpen today.

Edited May 12, 2024 by David HK
additional info

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, chinmusic said:

Facing Alek Manoah tomorrow might be just the ticket.

Thanks White Sox. 🙏

[Schmoeman5]

2 hours ago, John Bonnes said:

One fact Kris Atteberry pointed out in the ninth before Kepler's single is that after the fourth inning, the Twins had only seen 42 pitches between their 14 straight retired batters. And Toronto's bullpen has not been very good (though some of the guys the Twins saw have been better). The bullpen will be blamed, but this was a team loss. The lineup absolutely flailed about after the 4th. 

Sorry to disagree here. If your offense scores 8 runs and you have a 6 run lead. How is that on the offense. You're saying they needed to score 11 or 12? Even if that's the case, Toronto still bats in the bottom of the 9th. Who was left to get those 3 outs?

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

Well that sucked, but probably not as much as losing a 4-game series and possibly being swept by the White Sox would suck! Still half a game out. 

Bullpen needs a little reset, and really hoping Stewarts IL stint is the minimum (or close) since the MRI came back clean - just some inflammation.

Alcala in a 1-inning role would be really nice. Scott Blewett ("coming in for the save, it's Blewett!") has had a nice season in St Paul, Brent Headrick too, Diego Castillo could be worth a look in the majors, maybe they actually bring up Caleb Boushley to pitch. Either way, Jay Jackson just isn't working out and I could see Funderburk working on control in St Paul. 

[D.C Twins]

2 hours ago, darwin22 said:

An absolutely atrocious loss.  I'm 100% DONE with Jackson. Needs to be DFA'ed the second Topa is activated. Okert is close behind.  Sands coming back to earth after a great start.  Praying Stewart can come off IL as soon as possible.

THIS... Jay Jackson was not alone responsible for the loss, but he has brought less than zero to the table this year and at age 36, it is not like he has some untapped potential.

[mikelink45]

46 minutes ago, Schmoeman5 said:

Sorry to disagree here. If your offense scores 8 runs and you have a 6 run lead. How is that on the offense. You're saying they needed to score 11 or 12? Even if that's the case, Toronto still bats in the bottom of the 9th. Who was left to get those 3 outs?

So glad you said that - it was my take too.  How much does the offense have to do?

[LewFordLives]

The bullpen is taking most of the blame, but the reason they were exposed was because of the short start. Woods-Richardson wasn't foolin anybody today. There were some bad calls by the ump, but he just couldn't put people away.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Damn, already used up my Sand Pebbles meme.

There are worse teams to give one away to than that Blue Jays lineup.

See you tomorrow.

[Mike Sixel]

This obsession with having mediocre veterans up so they have good depth in the minors..... Jackson isn't at good as two guys in AAA, but they really prefer depth over quality. Cost them today. 

[jimbo92107]

A couple years ago (before they traded Garver), I predicted that Ryan Jeffers would be a starting catcher for the Twins for the next decade. Got one! Of course, I also predicted a lot of other things that didn't come true.

The only way to beat my Jeffers call is...

I predict a lot of Twins pitching prospects and veteran free agent pitchers will have arm trouble. There, now I can get my psychic average above 50 percent. Throwing a baseball as hard as you can, over and over, with spin, is bloody dangerous. Doesn't even matter if you can aim it.

[FlyingFinn]

2 hours ago, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

Alcala in a 1-inning role would be really nice. Scott Blewett ("coming in for the save, it's Blewett!") has had a nice season in St Paul, Brent Headrick too, Diego Castillo could be worth a look in the majors, maybe they actually bring up Caleb Boushley to pitch. Either way, Jay Jackson just isn't working out and I could see Funderburk working on control in St Paul. 

Alcala, Blewett, Castillo, Topa (how injured is he), Canterino (will he ever be healthy), Balazovic (pitching better of late), and maybe Winder (not pitching great now) are the possibilities I see for the bullpen. Varland at the end of the year but we need him ready to start along with Festa (another bullpen candidate at the end of the year) and Boushley. (spot starts). Headrick is on the 60 day IL. We won't see him with the Twins again this year IMO.

[DocBauer]

The offense quit. SWR wasn't what we've seen so far, and hope to see. Toronto had some very good players who are dangerous. They broke through today. 

Despite today, the pen has been very good so far, despite being pieced together due to injuries. The Twins BLEW this game. Period! But despite being an embarrassing performance, it's still ONE GAME. 

The Twins have been on a winning role! The sky is not falling. I do think the Twins need to take a hard look at Jackson. I'm still sold on Okert overall. I believe Alcala should be up and pitching 1 inning at a time. Period! He's proven to be damn good in that role. I think the Alcala and Sands roles have been used incorrectly. I'm ready to move on from Jackson, better K numbers than his previous performance, but not the ground ball arm he has been previously, and not really contributing much so far. He's been mediocre at best. I'm willing to move on for SOMEONE to get a shot as the 8th man at this point. 

Topa is STILL out. Stewart is out for now. Jackson didn't lose this game by himself. But he was responsible for inherited runners, as he had been too many times previously. 

Alcala should be throwing ONE inning. Sands should be throwing 1-2 innings as needed. 

But this was still a BS loss where SWR didn't have it, and the pen didn't have it, and the offense went to sleep.

Next game!