Twins squeak past Blue Jays to end 5-game losing skid
The Minnesota Twins snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win in ten innings over the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night.
The winning run was scored on Michael A. Taylor's sacrifice fly in the tenth inning, with Ryan Jeffers sliding head first into home plate for the lead run. Taylor was responsible for all three Minnesota runs, the first two coming on a homer in the fifth, his ninth of the season.
The three runs snaps Minnesota's streak of six consecutive games with two or fewer runs, though it continues the trend of meager offensive output. How bad has it been? Well, the Twins have scored three or fewer runs in 19 of 34 games since May 1.
They had just seven hits Friday night and Royce Lewis (4-for-4) had four of them while the rest of the lineup was a combined 3-for-31.
In the ninth, the Jays put runners at second and third with nobody out and Twins star closer Jhoan Duran got out of the jam. With two outs and the bases loaded, Brandon Belt was in a 3-2 count and he smoked a liner at 108 mph that was caught by second baseman Willi Castro to end the inning.
Up next: Twins at Blue Jays, Saturday at 2:07 p.m. CT
