TORONTO — The entire crowd, a sellout audience of 14,798 under COVID-19 restrictions, came to its feet as Josh Donaldson walked to the plate in the first inning on Friday. The Twins' third baseman raised his helmet in appreciation as the ovation crescendoed with a loud roar.
As Donaldson said before the game, only his third since being traded away from the Blue Jays in 2018, "It's good to see them playing good ball again. … It'll be nice to feel the energy their fans bring to this ballpark."
A lovely sentiment, and a nice moment. But would these Canadians have given their former MVP a standing ovation if they had known what was coming?
Donaldson hit one of four Minnesota home runs, Michael Pineda turned in nearly six strong innings, and the Twins knocked Toronto out of its wild-card playoff position Friday with a 7-3 victory at Rogers Centre.
The Twins capped a five-run third inning with three consecutive home runs, the middle one sliced the opposite way into the Twins' bullpen by Donaldson, the only American League MVP to play in Toronto in the past 34 seasons. Jorge Polanco started the barrage with a three-run shot to left-center, and Miguel Sano finished off the back-to-back-to-back flurry with a fly ball that ricocheted off the second deck above straightaway center field.
Brent Rooker also connected for a home run three innings later, and the Twins, who had won only twice in their past eight games, whipped the Blue Jays by their largest margin of defeat in exactly one month, since a 12-6 loss to the Nationals on Aug. 17.
The Twins took an early lead on Rooker's second-inning double, scoring Sano, but then handed the Blue Jays the lead with two runs that shouldn't have scored. With Corey Dickerson on second base and two outs, Jays catcher Danny Jansen hit a routine ground ball to Polanco, filling in for Andrelton Simmons at shortstop. Instead of ending the inning, Polanco's throw sailed over Sano at first base, scoring Dickerson and extending the inning. Jansen then scored when Jake Lamb followed with a double to left-center.
Rather than folding, though the Twins struck back against Jays left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu. Ryan Jeffers led off with a single, and Byron Buxton doubled him home with the game-tying run. Then came the Twins' first three-man fusillade of home runs since 2019: Polanco on a first-pitch curveball, followed by Donaldson, who almost awkwardly popped a 3-2 cutter into the bullpen.
Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo replaced Ryu with reliever Ross Stripling, but Sano greeted him with the longest blast of the night, a 436-footer over the black background in center field.
Pineda did the rest, allowing only one more run, on Vladimir Guerrero's 46th home run of the season. He struck out two and walked two in recording his third consecutive victory.
