MINNEAPOLIS — Weird afternoon in Minny. A couple of bitingly cool days gave 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, one set up by heavy lifting done beforehand.
“I feel like the team in general is just doing a really good job of putting together at-bats and hitting the ball hard,” said Myles Straw, who hit a solo shot in the second inning and walked twice, one with the bases loaded during the eighth. “It’s crazy, it’s like the whole lineup is hitting the ball 107 … it’s contagious. We’re getting back to the point of how we were last year.”
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.
The perfectly placed chopper by Sosa, who, in the second inning, hit his first homer of the season, 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, Straw walked to extend the lead.
“What I like over here in this offence is everybody’s very positive,” Sosa said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “Everybody’s working very hard, backing up each other and everybody has a plan for the game. I like the plan that everybody’s trying to hit the ball hard, regardless, all the time and staying through the middle.”
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 seems to have avoided further damage to his foot, while the offence’s late rally and Cease finding his way deeper into a game helped extend important elements of their recent resurgence.
“I thought there were some pretty good swings all day with Sosa and Myles, obviously,” said manager John Schneider. “You’ve got to stick with it, the eighth inning was a good representation of passing the baton, Ern with the hit, even Vlad’s walk, that just keeps it going. I can’t say enough about Kaz right now and the at-bats he’s having and then you put the ball in play and you put pressure on the defence. I thought we took some really, really good swings throughout the day and especially the eighth.”
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.
Still, he allowed his first homer of the season, on Byron Buxton’s solo shot in the first, and had to fight through plenty of traffic, although he found a way to keep his pitch count from running away at 106.
“Today felt really gritty,” he said. “Maybe not the best stuff, maybe not the best command, but I felt really good about going deep and giving the ‘pen a little break and just putting us in a better position. So, I feel really good about this.”
Working in more of his secondary offerings for quick outs has been a point of emphasis, as has been when to use them. Some of that will be common sense based on the situation, while some of that will be driven by the scouting report on how to attack certain hitters, said Cease.
There’s a mentality piece to it, as well, said John Schneider.
“To me it comes down to one-strike counts and not trying to strike the guy out with that pitch and make it nasty,” he explained. “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.’”
Cease did enough of that for the offence to deliver a 10th comeback win this season and a third when trailing after seven, on a wild afternoon in the Twin Cities.
