Bailey Ober helps Minnesota Twins rout Blue Jays 7-1 at Target Field
The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-1 on Thursday night at Target Field, with Bailey Ober limiting Toronto to two hits from George Springer and a solo homer by Daulton Varsho. The loss ended the Blue Jays’ two-game win streak and left them trying to steady a roster that had been in near-constant motion through April.
Ober Limits Toronto
Ober worked six-plus innings and kept the Blue Jays from building anything around Springer, who was starting for the first time since fracturing his left big toe on April 11. Toronto got its lone power burst from Varsho, but that never cut into the Twins’ control of the game.
Ryan Jeffers broke it open in the fourth with a two-run home run, then Byron Buxton added a solo shot in the sixth. Austin Martin followed later in the inning with a two-out RBI single, and the Twins kept extending the gap before an ugly three-run eighth inning pushed the score to 7-1.
Toronto’s April Grind
The result landed in the middle of a difficult month for Toronto. The Blue Jays entered Thursday at 14-17 and had already made 48 different moves in April, with 19 of the 30 days featuring some kind of transaction.
That churn has left the roster in flux, even as some pieces start to edge back toward availability. Addison Barger was due to run the bases on Saturday before starting a rehab assignment with low-A Dunedin on Sunday, and he could be active as soon as next week’s homestand against the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays.
Gausman Sees A Turn
Kevin Gausman said after the loss, “There's no secret that obviously we've had a rough go the last couple of weeks, losing a lot of guys.” He added, “We're slowly seeing those guys come back and they're feeling better and so this month will look a lot different at the end as opposed to the beginning.”
He also pointed to the gap that opened after Jeffers’ homer, saying, “There's a big difference between being down 2-1 or 4-1.” Toronto was weighing whether José Berríos would start on Sunday at Target Field or make another rehab start with triple-A Buffalo, a decision that fits the way this club is trying to piece together innings while the roster settles.
At the plate, the Blue Jays entered Thursday swinging at 51.1 percent of the pitches they had seen this season and carrying baseball’s second-highest contact rate at 77.4 percent, but the Twins still controlled the night from the fourth inning on. For Toronto, the challenge now is turning returning bodies into cleaner production before the next stretch of games starts to tighten.
