MINNEAPOLIS – Weird afternoon in Minny. A couple of bitingly cool days have given way to warmer temperatures, up to 18 C, and the ball was flying at Target Field. There were strange choppers in the infield, including Lenyn Sosa’s go-ahead RBI infield single on a pitch maybe six inches off the dirt, rockets flying to the outfield and an errant slider that incredibly clipped George Springer on the same left foot in which he has a broken big toe.
Amid the chaos, Dylan Cease logged seven innings for the first time since joining the Toronto Blue Jays, keeping a game that was off-the-rails on track just enough for the offence to grind out an eighth-run eighth in an 11-4 thumping of the Minnesota Twins.
Davis Schneider, ending an 0-for-27 drought, ripped a two-run double before Brandon Valenzuela followed with a three-run homer that capped the pivotal rally, but the heavy lifting was done beforehand.
Ernie Clement opened the inning with a single off Luis Garcia, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a walk after earlier sending his bat flying on a whiff and Kazuma Okamoto, who in the sixth mashed a monster 453-foot homer, ripped a single to tie the game 4-4.
Sosa’s perfectly placed chopper, on a sinker headed for the dirt, made it 5-4 and after Anthony Banda took over and let Daulton Varsho’s comebacker slip through him for an error to load the bases, Myles Straw walked to extend the lead.
The big blows followed, and the Blue Jays, within a game of the break-even point at 16-17, closed out a ninth win in their past 13 outings without leverage. Springer’s status was an immediate concern, but the offence’s late rally and Cease finding his way deeper into a game helped extend important elements of their recent resurgence.
Cease allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits and a walk while striking out seven, finding more of the pitch efficiency he’s been working toward, getting three outs with his sinker and one each on his sweeper and knuckle curve.
Working in more of his secondary offerings for quick outs has been a point of emphasis, as has been when to use them.
“To me, it comes down to one-strike counts and not trying to strike the guy out with that pitch and make it nasty,” said manager John Schneider. “And then it’s the 1-0, 2-0 counts, can you throw a sinker instead of a four-seamer? Can you throw a 2-1 changeup for a quick out to a lefty or righty to end the at-bat right there and just say, OK, this isn’t going to be a strikeout? That adds up to like 10, 15 pitches, which is usually another inning or so. So it’s those middle counts that I think he’s focused on, that we’re talking to him about, to where, ‘OK, let’s take the strikeout out of the equation and let’s end it right here.’”