MINNEAPOLIS _ Lance Lynn can give up runs on balls blasted into the seats, but where's the challenge in that? The Twins on Monday managed to give up a run on a ball that traveled, oh, maybe 15 feet.
Whether loud or soft, the runs were plentiful once again off Lynn, who turned in the fourth lousy start of his five-game Twins career, this time surrendering six runs, seven hits and five walks in only five innings. The Twins tried to rally, but still lost 7-5 to the Blue Jays.
The Twins lost their 15th game by April?30, only two off the franchise record set in 2011 and 2016, two forgettable seasons. And they head into May with even more questions about their pitching staff, after a month of mostly subpar work, than they had coming out of a feel-good spring camp.
After trading for Jake Odorizzi and signing Lynn, they believed they had a playoff-worthy starting rotation. Maybe it is _ their season isn't yet one-sixth complete _ but the remodeled rotation hasn't delivered yet.
Lynn's start Monday was his fourth with at least five runs against him, and boosted his ERA to an unsightly 8.37. It was also the Twins' seventh start in nine games that their starter didn't reach the sixth inning; they haven't received back-to-back quality starts since their first series of the year at Baltimore.
Lynn's control was a mess once again; with five walks Monday, he now has 23 on the season, which ties him for the most in the majors. He is also run the count to 3-0 on 11 batters, sixth most in the majors this year (and behind Odorizzi, the MLB leader with 15).
All those extra baserunners make him vulnerable to bad bounces and unlucky breaks, a fact that was proven in the second inning. Lynn loaded the bases on a single by Yangervis Solarte, a long double to the center-field wall by Kevin Pillar, and an intentional walk, after the count reached 3-0, to Kendrys Morales.
That brought up Lourdes Gurriel, a rookie second baseman from Cuba, whose MLB career was only 25 at-bats old. It produced the mismatch the Twins were looking for, when Gurriel was overpowered by a low fastball. He swing and tapped a slow roller up the third-base line, and catcher Mitch Garver quickly caught up to the ball. But rather than pick the ball up and tag Solarte as he was forced to run home, Garver chose to let the ball roll, hoping it would go foul. Perhaps it did _ replays were extremely close _ but when he picked up the ball, after Solarte had passed him, plate umpire Adam Hamari ruled the ball fair _ a call that's not reviewable by video replay _ and all runners were safe.
After striking out Aledmys Diaz, Lynn proceeded to walk Curtis Granderson, forcing in a run, a hint of things to come. The Blue Jays loaded the bases in the third inning, but Lynn escaped by striking out Gurriel, then struck for three more in the fourth _ one scoring on a Garver passed ball, two more on Justin Smoak's long home run into the right-field overhang. And Russell Martin added another solo shot in the fifth.
The Twins tried to keep pace against Aaron Sanchez, with a Max Kepler triple turning into a run, and an Eduardo Escobar two-run blast, his fourth of the season, adding two more. Single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, the latter on a Joe Mauer slide home after a Kepler double, pulled the Twins within range of a comeback.
