Down to the last licks, Santiago Espinal bobbled back and forth in the box. The Blue Jays second baseman spun his bat into position before lashing out at Jhoan Duran's blistering splitter.
Espinal made contact with Duran's 98 MPH pitch, sending a fly into the infield air and back down to a Minnesota glove. The infield fly stranded Kevin Kiermaier at second, a hopeful winning run, and handed the Twins a 3-2 win.
Here are a few takeaways from Toronto's loss:
Jays Can't Cash Big Run
As Brandon Belt made contact, Rogers Centre roared. The Blue Jays' DH scorched a liner to the right side of the infield, seemingly destined to cash the winning run from third. But instead, the liner found leather, as Kyler Farmer snagged the ball to silence the home crowd.
"Just didn't really get that hit when we needed to," manager John Schneider said.
The caught scorcher was Toronto's third-straight out after Espinal got to third base with no outs. The Jays had their chances in the ninth; they had their shots all evening. With eight hits to just two runs, the Blue Jays were a collective 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position in Friday's loss.
"Just a game of inches tonight," Schneider said.
Kikuchi Goes 5
After Donovan Solano sparked a leadoff double to start Yusei Kikuchi's Friday outing, the Toronto starter buckled down. The lefty induced six groundouts in the first four innings, striking out a pair of Twins batters when needed, and working out of the first pitch jam with a defensive play of his own.
Mixing mainly his fastball and curve, Kikuchi held Minnesota to just two hits in the first four frames. Kikuchi threw 30 curveballs on Friday (37% of his deliveries), earning two of his 10 whiffs on the pitch. It's a delivery the lefty is gaining more confidence with, Kikuchi said after the start.
"I can see how the batters are reacting to the curveball," Kikuchi said through a team interpreter. "I'm getting them off balance."
But in the fifth, Michael A. Taylor abruptly ended Kikuchi's string of success with a hammered slider. The outfielder sent an 87 MPH slider flying back at Kikuchi. The ball flew over Kikuchi's head, over the wall, and over Toronto's home bullpen in left field. The homer pulled Minnesota in front 2-0, and signaled the end of Kikuchi's start at just five frames.
Springer Comes Up Clutch
George Springer stood at the top step of Toronto's dugout, waiting for Twins reliever Brock Stewart to finish his few warm-up tosses. The outfielder's scheduled day off ended a few innings early on Friday, as he picked up a bat and entered the contest in the sixth.
With Toronto facing a one-run deficit, Springer jumped on the first pitch he saw, hammering a hung sweeper long and hard into the left-center gap. As the ball touched turf, Toronto's home crowd let out a collective howl. They cheered again when Santiago Espinal scored from first. And once more when Springer slid safely into third, himself.
Four innings later, Springer slammed another double to the outfield wall, pushing Espinal over to third with none out. The ninth-inning knock was the perfect stage-setting hit for an eventual walk-off, but instead, Minnesota closer Jhoan Duran sat down three straight Jays to escape the situation.
Pre-Game Moves & Updates
- Prior to Friday's game, the Blue Jays designated reliever Anthony Bass for assignment. The move came 11 days after Bass shared an anti-LGBTQ video on his social media. Toronto GM Ross Atkins said Bass' performance and the distraction of his post and subsequent comments led to the reliever's DFA.
- Outfielder Kevin Kiermaier was out of Toronto's starting lineup on Friday, and is considered day-to-day with a left wrist injury. He was available off the bench. The CF was struck in the wrist on Thursday, and X-Rays came back negative.
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