The Toronto Blue Jays will be dealing with another injury concern Sunday afternoon when they face the visiting Minnesota Twins in the decisive encounter of a three-game series.
Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer suffered a fractured left big toe Saturday during the Twins’ 7-4 victory. Springer fouled a ball off his foot in the third inning and went down in pain, but waved off trainers. He finished the at-bat and grounded out to third before leaving the game.
Toronto manager John Schneider said Springer was going to have a CT scan.
“Initial X-rays showed a possible, probable small fracture,” Schneider said. “We’ll know more in the next couple of days. Seen Georgie do that a lot of times. Usually, when he gives us that (the wave off) he’s all right.”
Schneider said the CT scan likely would determine how much time Springer could miss.
“I know Georgie plays through a lot all the time,” he said. “Fingers crossed but we’ll see what the CT says.”
Schneider said that Springer had fouled a ball off the same toe on Friday.
The Blue Jays are slated to go with right-hander Max Scherzer (1-1, 3.38 ERA) on Sunday. Scherzer is 10-2 with a 4.18 ERA in 19 career starts against Minnesota.
Scherzer left his start against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday after two innings and 36 pitches because of right forearm tendinitis. He said at the time that he did not expect to miss his next start.
The Twins are scheduled to start right-hander Taj Bradley (2-0, 1.08). In six games (four starts), Bradley is 2-2 with a 4.88 ERA against Toronto.
The Twins scored all their runs Saturday in the third inning against starter Eric Lauer. Brooks Lee started it with a solo shot — his second homer in two games — and Trevor Larnach finished it with a three-run blast. Two walks were also in the mix.
The Twins have homered in 25 consecutive games at Rogers Centre.
“Overall, we just had really consistent at-bats in that inning,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “We’re having good at-bats, we’re grinding through it. We’re adding in walks.”
The Twins have faced nine left-handed starters in 15 games, including Lauer.
“We’re extremely left-handed and it’s a little bit of a challenge for us,” Shelton said. “But we’ve had guys step up. It’s been different guys on different days. Today Larnach got the start against the left-hander and hits a three-run homer. (Matt) Wallner has done very similar to that.
“We just have to get through this stretch. It’s a little bit unprecedented because I know we get two more (left-handers) in the next series, too. There’s nothing we can do. We have to figure out how to beat guys and so far we’ve done a pretty good job of it.”
Twins starter Joe Ryan overcame Daulton Varsho’s two-run homer in the first to go seven innings, allowing only one more hit and a hit batter.
The Twins put infielder Royce Lewis on the injured list with a sprained knee. Ryan Kreidler was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul and started at third base. He was 0-for-4 and made a superb defensive play on a grounder by Nathan Lukes to end the seventh.
Minnesota also placed Cody Laweryson on the IL, retroactive to April 9, with a right forearm strain and promoted fellow right-handed reliever Andrew Morris from St. Paul.
–Field Level Media
