The Toronto Blue Jays ended two streaks on Wednesday and will try to stop another streak Friday night when they host the Minnesota Twins.
The Blue Jays snapped a six-game losing streak two days ago with a scruffy 4-3 win that also stopped the Los Angeles Dodgers’ five-game winning streak.
The Twins will take a four-game winning streak into the opener of the three-game series vs. Toronto on Friday after a 3-1 home victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.
Davis Schneider scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning on a throwing error when Andres Gimenez stole second.
The Dodgers, who had made only one error in their first 11 games, committed two on Wednesday. The Blue Jays also made an error on Wednesday, their 10th in 12 games.
“Obviously, we’re not starting the way we wanted to start, with all the injuries and the losses, but there’s 150 games left, so there’s still a lot of baseball to be played,” said Schneider, who entered the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning, walking and scoring twice.
“Hopefully, we can use this as kind of like a jump-start to a win streak here.”
Said Toronto manager John Schneider: “Davis put it all together today in terms of at-bat quality and just being aware of what he’s doing on the bases. All-around good game for him.”
The Blue Jays still need to clean up their game that so far has not been up to last season’s standards.
For example, the defending American League champions wasted a leadoff double in the sixth inning on Wednesday when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was thrown out at third on a grounder to shortstop that was in front of him.
The Blue Jays will turn to left-hander Patrick Corbin (7-11, 4.40 ERA in 2025) in his season debut on Friday.
Corbin, who pitched for the Texas Rangers in 2025, was signed as a free agent last week to bolster an injury-depleted rotation. He started for Class-A Dunedin on Saturday, allowing no runs, four hits and one walk with nine strikeouts in five innings.
Simeon Woods Richardson (0-1, 2.31 ERA) is the expected to start for the Twins. The right-hander is 0-0 with an 11.25 ERA in two career starts against the Blue Jays, his former organization. He was traded by Toronto as a minor-leaguer with Austin Martin to the Twins for Jose Berrios on July 30, 2021.
The Twins completed a four-game sweep of the Tigers on Thursday to complete a 5-2 homestand.
Brooks Lee’s two-run single to right with two out in the eighth inning against Will Vest turned out to be the difference on Thursday.
“That’s a huge hit for him,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “We know he’s been grinding a little bit. It’s a really good at-bat. Vest is a really good reliever. Laid off some balls down and got to the 3-2 count. A big hit for Brooks and a huge hit for us.”
Lee was batting .167 through his first 10 games of the season.
“I just feel like I’m grinding, but luckily I came through there,” he said.
“I always believe in him in those clutch moments,” said Twins third baseman Royce Lewis, who was 1-for-4. “I knew it was going to get done.”
–Field Level Media
