Sunday’s rubber match against the Toronto Blue Jays ended almost as quickly as it began.
Reliever Luke Farrell got the nod for the Twins and his one inning of work went like this: strikeout, double, single, home run, single, single, single, single and his day was done. He allowed five runs on seven straight hits, and that’s all the Jays would need with ex-Twin Jose Berrios on the mound.
Berrios made a quality start, allowing three runs over six-plus innings with a walk and six strikeouts to win 5-3. He improved to 12-8 on the season with a 3.45 ERA. When his day was done, Berrios walked off the mound to nice a round of applause and he also acknowledged the Twins with a gesture to the dugout.
Berrios was asked about his appearance against his former team.
“My mom called me yesterday and told me, hey, she knows I was playing for [the Twins], but now I’m a Toronto Blue Jay, but just do your work,” Berríos told MLB.com. “I said, ‘Yes, mom, but they still feel like my good friends.’”
The Twins have Monday off, then head to Chicago to play the Cubs. Griffin Jax gets the ball Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are officially 20 games under .500 at 65-85.
-Cleveland continues to make life miserable for the New York Yankees. They won 11-4 on Saturday and won big again on Sunday, 11-1. The Yankees are now 1.5 games back in the wild card race. Boston also won again on Sunday, beating the St. Louis Browns, 8-6. The Browns* are now 47-102.
-Old friend Eddie Rosario, now with the Atlanta Braves, hit for the cycle in the Braves’ 3-0 win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
-On Sept. 19, 1967, the Twins’ Dave Boswell pitched a two-hitter to beat the Kansas City Athletics, 8-2. Boswell allowed two runs on two hits over nine innings with six walks and eight strikeouts. The A’s scored their two runs on a wild pitch and a groundout. The Twins big four of Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison and Rod Carew each had an extra-base hit in the game, according to Baseball-Reference.com. The Twins were 91-71 in ’67.
*The St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954.