Toronto won their 3rd straight game Wednesday night against the Minnesota Twins 6-5. The win gives the Blue Jays the series against the Twins winning the 1st and 2nd game of the 3 game set. Toronto now has their record at 20-22 but are still looking up at everyone else in the AL East.
If you just looked at the box score you would think that Minnesota won this game because they collected 11 hits to the Jays 6. Toronto owes the victory to the 1st inning where they managed 4 runs off the bat of DH Matt Stairs who hit a 1 out grand slam giving the Jays a 4-0 lead. Unfortunately the big lead didn’t last long because they gave up 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the 1st. The rest of the game was close throughout with Toronto adding 1 run in the 4th and another in the 8th to give them the final score of 6-5. Matt Stair is my player of the game going 1-for-4 with 4 RBI and a run scored. He now has his batting average up to .304 and his homer total at 6. RF Brad Wilkerson also had a good game going 2-for-4 with 1 RBI and a run scored. He led the game off with his poor batting average at .224. Scott Rolen pitched in scoring 2 runs, hitting 1-of-3 and stealing his 2nd base of the year.
Toronto ace Roy Halladay took the mound for the Jays and pitched a tremendous game going 6 2/3rds innings allowing 9 hits, 4 runs and 8 Ks. He earned the win for his team bringing his record to 4-5 and his ERA to 3.49. Scott Downs came in to close the game up and did just that earing his 5th save of the season keeping his ERA at 2.60. Boof Bonser got the start for the Twins and didn’t have as much luck as Toronto pitchers. Bonser pitched 6 innings giving up 5 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks and the 1st inning grand slam to Matt Stairs. He was given the loss for his team bringing his record to 2-5 and his ERA up to 5.37.
It seems the Jays have hit a nice grove and got exactly what they needed from their Ace. They will need to keep up this improved play because they are running into teams that have above .500 records and will need to bring their A game.
