TORONTO _ Martin Perez, upon signing with the Twins during the offseason, expressed a desire to rediscover his slider. He ended up heeding the advice of his agent and trying a cut fastball.
The cutter, which moves in on right-handed hitters, has become a big weapon for him as he been one of the surprises of the early season.
But Perez also has a good changeup. And, on Monday, he let it loose on an overmatched Blue Jays team. Perez featured the pitch more than ever as he chewed up Toronto and helped the Twins ease to a 8-0 win in the first game of a three-game series at Rogers Center.
Perez rolled to a 5-0 record, tying Jose Berrios for the team lead. In seven innings, Perez gave up two hits and two walks while striking out a season-high nine batters. He has an 0.43 ERA over his last three starts and a 1.64 ERA since joining the starting rotation on April 15.
The Twins offense slugged three more home runs as they scored at least seven runs for the eighth time this season.
Toronto didn't get its first hit until the fourth inning, and only had two hits heading into the late innings, as Perez kept the Blue Jays from squaring up many his pitches. Once Perez discovered that his changeup was working, it added another dimension to his pitching that overwhelmed Toronto.
He threw 26 change ups on Monday, eight more than he did on April 5 against the Phillies, his previous high.
With runners on first and second in the fourth inning, Perez threw four changeups to prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who eventually hit a grounder to Marwin Gonzalez, who stepped on third then threw to first to complete a nifty inning-ending double play.
Perez didn't totally abandon his cut fastball, a pitch he entered Monday throwing 35.1 percent of the time. It was a weapon as well.
He threw back-to-back cutters to Eric Sogard in the third inning while striking him out. Sogard entered the game without a strike out over his previous 40 plate appearances, which was the longest streak in the majors entering the game. Perez struck out Sogard twice on Monday.
It also has to be pointed out that Perez was on the right end of several borderline calls by home plate umpire Adam Hamari. There was a cumulative effect of Hamari's decisions, as Brandon Drury engaged him after being called out on strikes in the fifth. That brought Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo out of the dugout, and he was tossed from the game within seconds.
The Twins got an RBI groundout by Eddie Rosario in the first inning to open the scoring. They ended up scoring runs in five of the first seven innings to seize control of the game.
Jason Castro belted a first pitch fastball over the right field wall in the second inning for a two-run home run. The Twins added two more runs in the fourth, including a RBI ground rule double by Byron Buxton.
Eddie Rosario hit a solo home run in the fifth to put the Twins ahead 6-0. Rosario has hits in three consecutive games after breaking out of a 0-for-24 slump over the weekend, and took over the American League home run lead with 12. Jorge Polanco added a home run in the seventh, and Rosario added a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Jason Castro was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning and eventually left the game with a right elbow contusion. He's day to day.
