MINNEAPOLIS _ The ball was crushed, and Eddie Rosario could only watch it sail away.
Unfortunately for the Twins, Rosario was standing in the left field. The ball was hit by Toronto's Teoscar Hernandez and carried high into the night before landing in the second deck for a three-run home run in the eighth inning that propelled the Blue Jays to a 5-3 win.
The Twins began the inning with a 3-1 lead, courtesy of a three-run homer by C.J. Cron in the fourth. Ryne Harper had just finished a 1-2-3 seventh. Left-hander Adalberto Mejia went out for the eighth, despite the Blue Jays sending up two switch hitters and one right-handed hitter in the inning.
Freddy Galvis singled to left. Randal Grichuk doubled to right. Justin Smoak singled to left, driving in a run to make it 3-2.
Hernandez, who hit 22 home runs last season, fell behind 0-2 but fouled off three consecutive pitches to keep the at-bat alive _ something that has happened to Mejia frequently in his brief career.
Mejia threw a slider that didn't get in on Hernandez enough, and the pitch was hammered just shy of the third deck. Toronto had a 5-3 lead.
The Twins used Harper and Mejia on Monday because they had used key relievers Taylor Rogers and Trevor Hildenberger in each of the two previous games. Presented with the opportunity to get the game to the ninth inning with the score intact, Mejia struggled.
The Twins failed to score in the bottom of the inning, but not before manager Rocco Baldelli received the first heave-ho of his career. It came as he walked out to home plate to defend Cron, who claimed he fouled a 2-2 pitch that he swung at. Home plate umpire Mike Estabrook ruled that Cron struck out swinging, despite replays showing that the ball either hit Cron on the hand or the bat. Either way, it was as mild-mannered a manager could be while getting tossed from a game.
Before that, it looked like the Twins were going to make do with what Blue Jays starter Matt Shoemaker gave them to work with.
The Blue Jays led 1-0 on a sacrifice fly by Alen Hanson in the fourth. The Twins had one hit at that point, as Shoemaker used his split-fingered fastball effectively on Monday.
He's a split-fingered fastball monster, throwing the pitch 32.7 percent of the time this season.
"It keeps you honest," Baldelli said before the game. "It's a pitch that generally keeps you honest. If you are going to cheat against a guy like that, try to jump his fastball, that's probably what he's looking for _ for you to not just wait and see the ball and then react."
Jorge Polanco managed to poke a splitter through the infield to lead off the fourth with a single. Nelson Cruz lined out hard to left for the first out _ but it was on a Shoemaker splitter, maybe it was a sign of better things to come.
Eddie Rosario immediately fell behind 0-2 but then fouled off two splitters while working the count full. Shoemaker then threw his normally trusty pitch into the dirt, and Rosario had a walk. Two were on for Cron.
Shoemaker threw a 1-1 splitter to Cron that didn't drop out of the strike zone. It more like dropped into Cron's danger zone. And the first baseman launched the ball out to left, then flipped his bat toward the dugout. He knew it was gone, and the Twins led 3-1.
