September 19, 2021

Twins split 2 games with Blue Jays, face Berrios Sunday

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.

-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.

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.