TORONTO — George Springer slid headfirst into home, jumped to his feet and let out a scream.
He’d just scored from first base on Addison Barger‘s two-run, tie-breaking double to the right-field wall and brought 42,361 to their feet at Rogers Centre.
Jeff Hoffman followed by closing out the ninth inning, one day after blowing a save, as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Minnesota Twins 9-8 at Rogers Centre.
With the win, the Blue Jays improved to 78-56 and took two of three from the Twins.
Before the dramatics, though, was a slugfest that saw the Twins get the best of Blue Jays starter Eric Lauer, who was pitching for the first time in 11 days.
Byron Buxton led off the game by depositing a 2-2 cutter from Lauer into the centre-field stands and the Twins kept the laser show going. Buxton added his second homer in the third inning and, three batters later, Luke Keaschall went deep with a solo shot.
The Blue Jays’ defence didn’t help matters in the fourth, with catcher Tyler Heineman and shortstop Bo Bichette committing errors on consecutive plays that led to two runs. Twins shortstop Brooks Lee added another homer in the fifth and, by the time Lauer’s day was over, he’d surrendered eight runs (six earned) on 10 hits over 4.2 innings.
The Blue Jays counterpunched all night with home runs of their own. Davis Schneider went deep twice, while Andres Gimenez continued his strong showing at plate with a solo homer.
Ty France added to the dramatics in the eighth inning with a pinch-hit solo home run that brought the Blue Jays’ deficit to within one run. The 420-foot shot was France’s first at-bat since joining the Blue Jays ahead of the July 31 trade deadline.
That paved the way for the pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk and Springer to reach base ahead of Barger, who ripped a 110.3 m.p.h. double off the top of the right-field wall to give the Blue Jays the lead that stood up.
