TORONTO — By the time Carlos Santana’s three-run homer cleared the centre-field wall in the third inning to open up a 7-1 Minnesota Twins lead, this felt like another repeat episode of the 2024 Toronto Blue Jays show we’ve watched all season.
Only four times beforehand had they scored more than six runs in a game. A struggling bullpen was in no shape to hold the game there and give the offence a chance to rally. Even if it did, the offence hadn’t erased a deficit bigger than two runs all season long.
But this turned out to be a flip-the-script Saturday for the Blue Jays, who scored nine times in their final six turns at the plate, reached double digits for the first time this year and rallied for their timeliest and arguably most important win of the season, 10-8 over the Twins.
Losers in 11 of 15 coming in, with a daunting schedule ahead and Alek Manoah due to take the mound in Sunday’s series finale, the comeback provided a steadying moment. One game will not turn around a season, but save for a weird outing from Kevin Gausman, the Blue Jays looked as they were designed.
Zach Pop, Trevor Richards, Erik Swanson, Yimi Garcia and Jordan Romano, handling the ninth for his sixth save, allowed just one run over six innings of work, none after Ryan Jeffers’ solo shot off Pop in the fourth.
And the offence, so frustrating and frustrated through the first month and a half of the season, was relentless, energizing a crowd of 35,069.
Bo Bichette hit a solo shot in the second inning to get the Jays on the board and the heavy lifting followed. Back-to-back doubles by Davis Schneider and Daulton Varsho, plus an RBI single from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., his second of four hits, made it 7-3 in the third. A solo shot by Schneider and a two-run homer from Danny Jansen in the fifth made it 8-6. Guerrero’s two-run single tied it 8-8 in the sixth. Ernie Clement’s go-ahead RBI single and Schneider’s sacrifice fly in the seventh made it 10-8.
It might have been more if not for a few at-‘em balls, too.
