Another starting pitcher fails to have a quality start, combined with not much offense leads to the Minnesota Twins dropping the series finale to the Toronto Blue Jays.

This time it was Michael Pineda getting the start for the Twins on the mound. He was coming into the game with a 2-0 record with 15 innings pitched in three outings. He pitched well in his first three outings giving up 13 hits and five runs while striking out 15 batters. Today was a different story for Pineda.

He started off the game getting two ground ball outs but gave up a two out home run to Grichuk. The Twins were able to answer this when they put together a nice three-run bottom of the second that started with an Eddie Rosario home run. Pineda pitched well in the second and third inning but things got ugly quick in the fourth. After Grichuk singled, Smoak drove a ball to deep right to tie the game at 3. The inning wasn't over yet and Pineda found himself in a tight situation with the bases loaded and only one out. He was able to get Jansen to fly out to shallow center, holding all the runners but then gave up a bases clearing double to Sogard which drove Pineda out of the game.

Pineda only put together 3.2 innings while giving up six runs on seven hits. This meant the Twins had to look towards their bullpen a bit earlier than they probably wanted to. Ryne Harper was called upon first to end the fourth inning, which he did, and then proceeded to throw three more shutout innings in a great outing. Duffey came in for the eight inning with the game at 6-3 and struck out the first two batters, but Hernandez took a fastball high and deep into left field to extend their lead to four runs.

Rosario was able to answer that with his second home run of the game, but it wasn't enough as the Jays held on through the late innings to win 7-4 and take the series three games to one. Trevor May also came in to pitch the ninth and gave up no hits while striking out one guy.

Unlike our recent losses, this one falls on the starting pitcher. Pineda got behind in the count on two different at-bats 2-0 with one leading to a homerun and the other was the bases clearing double. The bullpen came in and gave us a solid 5.1 innings, minus the bomb, but with the offense continuing to struggle, there was no hope for the Twins.

They obviously had a great second inning, but the top three batters, Kepler, Polanco, and Cruz, went a combined 0-12 with two walks and three strikeouts. It's hard to be mad at Polanco the way he's been hitting, but Kepler's average has now dropped to .242 and Cruz is hitting .278 with four extra base hits. Rosario drove up his homerun total to six on the year, and Astudillo was able to break a 2-24 slump by getting hits in his first two plate appearances.

There wasn't many positives to take away from this game as the Twins dropped to 9-7 on the season. They continue their play tomorrow in Baltimore when they face the Orioles for a three game series and look to fix things from this previous series.