The Minnesota Twins will try to avoid early-inning woes as they attempt to end a three-game losing streak Tuesday night and square their series with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Twins starter Joe Ryan allowed six runs on Monday, including five in the opening two frames, as Minnesota dropped the opener of the three-game series 10-4.
That followed an 8-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday when the Twins were down 7-0 after two innings.
The tiresome trilogy started on Saturday when Minnesota trailed 6-1 after two innings in a 7-3 loss to the White Sox.
Minnesota right-hander Bailey Ober (4-7, 5.05 ERA) aims to avoid a similar fate when he starts on Tuesday.
Ober already has one loss against the Blue Jays this season, when he allowed five runs in seven innings during a 6-4 setback on June 6. The Twins led that game 3-0 before Toronto scored two in the fourth, two more in the fifth and one in the sixth. Ober is 2-3 with a 3.48 ERA in six career starts against Toronto.
Right-hander Chris Bassitt (11-7, 4.18) is the scheduled Toronto starter. He is 1-1 with a 5.26 ERA in seven career games (four starts) against the Twins, but he has not faced them since 2023.
The Twins briefly made the Monday game close when Matt Wallner’s second homer of the game, a two-run shot against Max Scherzer, trimmed the deficit to 6-4 in the sixth inning.
“Nobody really impacts the ball the way (Wallner) does except for maybe five guys, maybe 10,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said, according to MLB.com. “Anywhere you look, you’re not going to find guys that take swings quite like his. … I don’t miss really anyone’s swings or anyone’s at-bats, but those are some that you always want to see, because he might hit a ball like he hit today.”
However, the Blue Jays responded immediately against the Minnesota bullpen, which is shallow after the team unloaded a bunch of relievers before the July 31 trade deadline. Brooks Kriske took over in the Toronto sixth and allowed four runs in his lone inning.
The Twins have lost 11 of their past 14 games, yet they showed tantalizing signs against Scherzer. Before Wallner hit his first homer of the game in the fourth, three of the previous five batters had flied out to the warning track in right.
While the Blue Jays have a five-game lead in the American League East, they are in a 14-13 stretch of mediocrity and the bullpen has shown some flaws.
“There are definitely areas where we can tighten up and sharpen up,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “Whether it is the bullpen, whether it is getting certain (hitters) going, I think getting back to playing a little bit better defense, all things that have kind of got us to this position.”
The Blue Jays are comfortable at home, where they are 43-21, the best mark in the majors. They 34-34 on the road.
While Toronto’s Addison Barger sat out on Monday because of an illness, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. returned as the designated hitter, his first start in a week after he tweaked his left hamstring. He was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his first three plate appearances before driving in the final two runs of the game with a single in the sixth.
Toronto’s Bo Bichette had an RBI single in the first inning and wound up 1-for-3 with a walk to extend his hit streak to 10 games. He is 17-for-39 (.436) with five doubles and six RBIs in that span.
–Field Level Media
