TORONTO – Carlos Santana’s three-run homer in the seventh inning broke a scoreless tie as the Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 on Sunday.
Max Kepler hit a two-run double in the eighth inning as Minnesota (24-16) won its three-game rubber match.
Bailey Ober (4-1) pitched 6 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball, striking out 10. Cole Sands, Kody Funderbunk, and Jhoan Duran were the Twins’ relievers.
The only score Toronto (18-22) was able to score was pinch hitter Danny Jansen’s sacrifice fly in the 7th inning. It was the first game of the season played at Rogers Center with the roof open.
Alec Manoa (0-1) allowed three runs (all unearned) over seven innings, lowering his ERA from 13.50 to 4.91 in his best outing of the year. He allowed four hits and one walk while striking out six.
Relievers Erik Swanson and Nate Pearson came out of the Blue Jays’ bullpen.
This was Manoa’s second start for the Blue Jays since he began the year on the disabled list with shoulder soreness. He made several starts for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons before being called up to Toronto.
Related videos
Manoa made five minor league starts, going 0-2 with an ERA of 8.69 with 28 strikeouts in 19 2/3 innings.
The email you need for the day’s top news stories from Canada and around the world.
Manoa allowed six hits, four walks, seven runs, and six earned runs in his first MLB game this season, but struck out six in four innings on May 5 as Toronto lost 11-0 to the Washington Nationals.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Saturday that Manoa’s 2022 Cy Young Award-winning season was because he wasn’t afraid to throw the ball into the strike zone.
“He lets his stuff play in the zone and uses his natural miss patterns to get swings and misses as well,” Schneider said. “I think the more he’s in the zone, the less he’s throwing breaking balls on a 2-1 count, the more he’s in the zone with as much confidence as possible.”
Manoa looked like his old self Sunday, throwing four-seam fastballs on 39.7% of his pitches. He mixed in a changeup 24.4% of the time and used a sinker and slider 17.9% of his pitches each.
He gave up just two hits in the first 6 1/3 innings when Kepler got a hit based on a fielding error by third baseman Ernie Clements. Willi Castro then singled to move Kepler to second. Alex Kirilloff singled on a fielder’s choice and Castro was out at second base.
This brought Santana to the plate with two outs and two on.
He slammed an 86.9 mph changeup into right-center field for his seventh home run of the season, giving Minnesota a 3-0 lead. Although all three goals were scoreless. Manoa only threw a breaking ball to Santana at the plate, and his slider and changeup went out of the zone right before Santana’s home run.
Toronto took the lead in the bottom of the seventh when Jansen, pinch-hitting for Daniel Vogelbach, hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to score Vladimir Guerrero Jr. That puts the Twins up 3-1.
Kepler gave up Swanson’s double to right-center in the top of the eighth to bring home Carlos Correa and Quebec City’s Edouard Julien.
ON DECK — Jose Berrios (4-3) starts Monday as the Blue Jays begin a three-game series in Baltimore.
Corbin Burns (3-2) is scheduled to play for the American League East-leading Orioles.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2024.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
