Berríos blanks his old team

José Berríos pitched around a season-high five walks and into the sixth inning for Toronto to beat his old team, and the Blue Jays blanked the Minnesota Twins 3-0 on Sunday for their first series win in four tries.

Alejandro Kirk hit a two-run single in the second inning that held up for Berríos (5-4), who has allowed two or fewer runs in seven of his last nine turns after a rough start.

Daulton Varsho scored from first base on Kirk’s hit and was solid in the outfield, the day after he twice had a leaping catch attempt turn into a Twins home run when those balls bounced off his glove and into the grass berm. Filling in in centre for Kevin Kiermaier, Varsho assisted on the third out of the fourth inning when he fielded a single and threw out Alex Kirilloff trying to go from first to third.

Then in the eighth, Varsho jumped above the center-field wall to take a homer away from Carlos Correa.

Jordan Romano recorded his 12th save with a scoreless ninth, allowing a two-out single to rookie Matt Wallner. He was 2 for 2 with two walks and has reached base in eight straight plate appearances.

The Blue Jays (28-26), who are in last place in the AL East, improved to just 10-17 in their last 27 games.

With Alek Manoah struggling at the top of the rotation, the Blue Jays need several more starts like this from Berríos, who was traded by the Twins at the deadline two years ago. The right-hander is 3-1 with a 2.30 ERA in his last five starts, four of them wins for Toronto.

Bailey Ober (3-2) finished five innings for Minnesota for the fourth time in five May starts, with seven strikeouts. The 6-foot-9 right-hander took a bad-luck loss, though, on the two-out bloop to shallow leftcenter by Kirk in the second.

The Twins (27-26) had their lead in the AL Central cut to one game over Detroit (25-26). They’ve led the division for 58 of 60 days this season.

Rookie Edouard Julien, a native of Quebec City, whose favourite boyhood team was the Blue Jays, has four homers in 16 games. He hasn’t been as sharp in the field or on the bases while filling in at second for Jorge Polanco, who became eligible to return from a strained left hamstring on Sunday.

Julien made a diving stop of Varsho’s two-out single in the second, but he dropped the ball before he could make the throw to first. The official scorer ruled the play a hit.