The Twins looked pretty good on Friday, hitting back to back to back home runs to knock off the Toronto Blue Jays, one of the hottest teams in baseball, 7-3.
But it’s hard to keep the Blue Jays down because they also have the best offense in baseball, and they showed why on Saturday, going deep twice to win 6-2. Marcus Semien hit his 40th home run of the season and Jays pitching limited the Twins to just two runs on four hits. One of those hits was a Josh Donaldson home run, his 24th.
In the rubber match on Sunday, the Twins will face old friend Jose Berrios, who the club traded in July in exchange for a top infielder and pitching prospect. The Twins will counter with reliever Luke Farrell, which means it’s either a bullpen day on the mound or the Twins just don’t have the arms at the moment.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are 65-84 with 13 games left in the season.
-Cleveland put a dent in the Yankees’ wild card chances on Saturday, beating the bombers 11-4 in The Bronx. The Yankees now find themselves a half game out of the second wild card position, looking up at the Jays and Red Sox. Boston beat the St. Louis Browns,* 9-3. The Browns are now 47-101.
-The Twins’ Miguel Sano has set an unfortunate record. He is the fastest in major league history to reach 1,000 career strikeouts.
Miguel Sanó makes major-league history today:
Fastest to 1,000 Career Strikeouts
661 Games — Miguel Sanó
747 — Mark Reynolds
816 — Chris Davis
828 — Rob Deer
843 — Ryan Howard
848 — Giancarlo Stanton
874 — Adam Dunn
927 — Pete Incaviglia
938 — Russell Branyan
948 — B.J. Upton— Phil Miller (@MillerStrib) September 18, 2021
-On Sept. 18, 1966, the Twins beat the Yankees, 5-3, on a pinch hit, three-run home run hit by Bob Allison in the 10th inning at Yankee Stadium, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
*The St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954.