Saturday was always going to be a bullpen day for the Twins, with John Gant making his return to the mound after a trip to the injured list because of a lower abdominal strain. Gant lasted three innings before manager Rocco Baldelli "let the train start coming through," as he put it.
The Blue Jays made sure that five-pitcher train encountered some hiccups on its route as they won for the first time in this four-game series with a 6-1 victory at Target Field, ending the Twins' four-game winning streak.
The Twins offense couldn't provide a jolt to keep up with Toronto's power surge, which included home runs from Teoscar Hernandez, Marcus Semien and George Springer. The Twins scored in the first inning but were held to three hits on the night.
Gant made it through three innings and allowed two runs, one earned, while Toronto starter Robbie Ray (13-6) gave up only one run over six innings as he used almost two pitches exclusively, a fastball and slider.
"A guy like this you definitely have to capitalize every opportunity you can because you're only going to get so many," Baldelli said. "He misses a lot of bats … Ultimately when he needed to get some outs he pulled it together."
The Twins got on the board first, but there could have been more for them if not for a high-degree-of-difficulty catch from Springer in center.
With runners on first and third, Mitch Garver, the designated hitter, gave one a ride to the deepest part of the park near the 411-foot sign in center. Springer sprung toward the fence and nabbed an extra-base hit away from Garver as Jorge Polanco tagged and scored. The Twins were on the board though the inning came to a halt after that, and they would get only four runners as far as second base the rest of the night.
"I feel like the types of at-bats we had tonight were good," Baldelli said. " We just needed more of them and we needed a big hitter too as well."
