Game Score: Blue Jays 5, Twins 3

Box Score
Luke Farrell: 1.0 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 1 K (70.5-percent strikes)
Homeruns: Rortvedt (3)
Bottom 3 WPA: Farrell (-.332), Kepler (-.099), Cave (-.097)

Win Probability Chart (via Fangraphs)

José Berríos Stifles Twins Lowly Offensive Attack

The big storyline headed into today was the Twins bad offense against “old friend” José Berríos who’s having the best second half of his career. Despite pitching well for Toronto over the last month and half, today’s start by the former Twins pitcher was reminiscent of his time in Minnesota. Over the first three innings of the game, Berríos was on point by allowing just one hit, a 1st inning double to Byron Buxton, but only struckout one hitter. The Twins were able to put together a little rally in the fourth when Berríos hit Josh Donaldson which was followed up by back-to-back doubles from Miguel Sano and Nick Gordon to give the Twins their first runs of the game.

Berríos settled back by getting 10 of the next 11 Twins batters out and allowing a lone walk to Donaldson in the top of the 6th. He’d go out for the 7th but wouldn’t be able to finish the inning as he allowed a solo homerun to Ben Rortvedt, who was batting ninth for the Twins today. 

The Twins didn’t have the baserunners or runs to show it but they were actually able to hit their former teammate pretty hard today generating 11 balls with exit velocities of 95 miles per hour or greater. For reference, the Twins bullpen game generated 12 hard hits over the same amount of innings.

The three runs against Berríos were the only runs the Twins would get as they weren’t able to muster up a hit after the Rortvedt homer.

Bullpen Needs Relief Early

The Twins elected to use a bullpen game today, which typically means that each relief pitcher used will try and give the club two to three innings. Unfortunately, Luke Farrell got clobbered in the first inning giving up seven straight hits, including a double and two-run homerun, and five earned runs.

Farrell was relieved by Nick Vincent at the start of the second inning who was able to silence the best offense in baseball with two innings of shutout work giving up only a hit and a walk while striking out one.

Juan Minaya came on in the fourth allowing a walk and a hit but striking out the nine, one, and four hitters in the Blue Jays high powered offense. He continued his strong appearance with two more strikeouts in the fifth and generated 15-percent whiff rate on his fastballs over the two innings pitched.

Caleb Thielbar was up next on the merry-go-round giving up one hit while striking out one.

Danny Coulumbe finished up the last two innings of the game by striking out two and allowing just one hit.