TORONTO — Et tu, Jose?
The Twins' disheartening tour through the AL East concluded Sunday with a 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays, but this one came with a twist: The vintage José Berríos performance that normally rescued them from such dismal stretches this time felt like piling on.
Berríos gave his former teammates a nostalgic look at his sudden-break curveball and high-heat fastball, this time from the batter's box. The result: 12 ground-ball outs, six strikeouts and another dominating Rogers Centre performance by a righthander who never allowed a run here while a Twin.
Byron Buxton and Miguel Sanó, who came up through Minnesota's system with Berríos, each belted a keep-in-touch double off their old friend, but it was rookies Nick Gordon and Ben Rortvedt, who barely played with the veteran righthander, providing the day's only real offense off him. Gordon followed Sanó's double with one of his own, driving in Minnesota's first two runs. And Rortvedt, who caught Berríos four times this season, ended his day by plastering a curveball that broke into the strike zone into the seats in right field.
Berríos paid tribute to the visitors' dugout as he walked off the field, then acknowledged the loud standing ovation, his embrace by a new fan base in the middle of a pennant race complete. It's a pennant race, and particularly a highly competitive East, that has abused the Twins over the past few weeks. Sunday's loss finished the Twins' visits to the five AL East parks for the season, and they lost all five series, going 4-12 in all.
Outside of his own emotions, Berríos' day was never particularly stressful, thanks to the Blue Jays' punishment of Twins' opener Luke Farrell. The veteran righthander, making his fifth career start as an opener but first for the Twins, was pummeled by the Jays' powerful lineup, with seven consecutive players recording hits in an ugly first inning. Bo Bichette provided the biggest one, a two-run homer to straightaway center, in the five-run first.
The Twins' bullpen was remarkably sturdy the rest of the way, shutting out the Jays on just three hits. But the first-inning damage was too extensive to overcome.
