TORONTO _ His All-Star experience was so much fun, Jose Berrios has already begun working on making the 2019 team.
Looks like he wants to start, too.
Berrios turned a Blue Jays lineup that is normally potent at home into a series of harmless encounters on Tuesday, and effortlessly racked up his 10th win of the season. Toronto advanced one hitter as far as second base during the right-hander's seven innings, and that on a pop-fly double fielded by the shortstop, and Minnesota cruised to its first shutout victory in exactly one month, 5-0 at Rogers Centre.
Twins pitching has held its opponent scoreless seven times this season, and Berrios has started four of them. No wonder he represented Minnesota _ and pitched a scoreless inning _ at Nationals Park last week.
Which makes his performance in his first appearance since then not a surprise to Twins manager Paul Molitor.
"Once you get a chance to experience that, maybe somewhat subconsciously you want to go out there and back your second half like you did the first half to show that you were worthy of that selection," Molitor said.
Berrios did it with a curveball he was unafraid to throw over the plate, a pitch that he rode to nine strikeouts. He walked only one batter, and gave up three singles and Yangervis Solarte's perfectly-placed bloop behind third base, a double that shortstop Jorge Polanco raced over to field. That came with one out in the second inning, and when Kendrys Morales followed with a line-drive single to left, Berrios faced his one and only "trouble" of an otherwise serene night.
His response? A 2-2 curveball on the outside corner that Russell Martin couldn't reach for strike three, and a 2-2 curveball in the dirt that Randal Grichuk flailed at, ending the inning.
The Twins weren't having any better luck against Blue Jays rookie left-hander Ryan Borucki, who retired the first 10 batters he faced and twice worked out of two-on-one-out situations. But the defense behind Borucki failed him in the sixth, when left fielder Teoscar Hernandez botched an easy catch of a Joe Mauer fly ball to lead off the inning. The ball glanced off Hernandez's glove, and Mauer took second base, then moved to third on Eddie Rosario's ground out. He scored the game's first run on a Brian Dozier sacrifice fly.
Perhaps deflated by the unearned run, Borucki quickly gave up another one, surrendering back-to-back doubles to Eduardo Escobar and Robbie Grossman. It was Escobar's 37th double of the season, keeping him three ahead of Cleveland's Francisco Lindor for the major-league lead. And it was only the start of the heroics for the Twins' third baseman.
When Mauer walked and Rosario singled in the eighth inning against reliever John Axford, Escobar worked six straight fastballs into a 3-2 count. And when Axford tried to sneak a curveball past him, Escobar was ready, blasting it over the right field wall for his 15th home run of the season.
That was all that the Twins' bullpen would need; Trevor Hildenberger and Ryan Pressly completed the team shutout with an inning apiece.
