There’s little relief from an all-relief day
Bullpen gets beaten up in ugly series opener against Minnesota
The Blue Jays’ bullpen-day experiment ended in a 8-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Rogers Centre on Monday night.
Minnesota starter Adalberto Mejia allowed eight hits over 51⁄ 3 innings but gave up just one run, while three of six Jays relievers combined to give up eight runs and 13 hits. Jake Petricka and Jaime Garcia, who put in a team-high three innings from the seventh on, held the Twins hitless from the sixth inning on.
“It didn’t work too well,” manager John Gibbons said of having to go from start to finish with relievers. “At the big- league level, you never want to have to do it but sometimes you have to, considering the circumstances.”
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a solo home run to left centre to get Toronto on the board. The 24year-old shortstop went 2-for-4 with a walk on Monday, his sixth straight multi-hit game. He is the third rookie in Jays history to manage such a streak.
The Jays were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 13 runners on base.
“A lot of hits but not a lot of runs tonight,” Gibbons said. “Hopefully we don’t have to do too many of those.”
Quasi-starter Luis Santos had little help from Teoscar Hernandez on defence in the first of his two innings. The left fielder let a double by leadoff man Joe Mauer get away from him in the first at-bat of the game. Two hitters later, Hernandez misjudged a triple by Eduardo Escobar, the ball going under him as he slid for the catch. That hit scored Mauer to give the Twins a one-run lead.
Santos turned the ball over after 44 pitches, with Tim Mayza starting the third. The lefty sur- rendered two runs, as the Jays defence struggled to turn a double play on more than one occasion in the frame. Logan Morrison’s two-out, two-run single, made it 3-0.
Mayza was replaced by Aaron Loup with one out in the fourth, after giving up a pair of singles to Mitch Garver and Robbie Grossman. Loup gave up singles that scored the pair, giving Mayza a line of four runs and four hits in 1 1⁄3 innings.
Joe Biagini, the Jays’ fourth pitcher, gave up homers to Morrison and Max Kepler in an eventful fifth inning.
Gurriel’s fifth home run of the season came in the third, one batter after Kepler stole extra bases from Randal Grichuk by plowing into the wall in right centre to make a crucial catch.
Gibbons tipped his hat to Garcia who “really saved us” with three innings of work.
“That’s as good and under control as I think I’ve seen (Garcia) this year.”