Twins Continue Surprising Start by Routing Blue Jays in Series Finale

Only one team in the AL has scored more runs than the Twins, who have won six of their last seven games.

Apr 12, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Minnesota Twins first baseman Kody Clemens (2) throws his bat after hitting a solo home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the third inning at Rogers Centre. | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

It's still far too early to make any sweeping declarations. With that said, a Minnesota Twins team that came into this season with no real external expectations has shown a lot of promise through the first ten percent of its 2026 schedule.

The Twins scored eight runs in the first three innings of Sunday's rubber match in Toronto and cruised to an 8-2 win over the Blue Jays to claim the series. After sweeping the Tigers in four games at Target Field, Minnesota wrapped up a 6-1 week with a couple offensive outbursts against the defending AL champions on Saturday and Sunday.

As they get set to come home and take on the Red Sox and Reds next week, the Twins are 9-7 and currently occupy a playoff spot. Their 79 runs scored are second in the American League, behind only the Houston Astros. They're third in the AL with 17 home runs and have, for the most part, gotten strong pitching from their starting rotation. Offense and starting pitching is the formula for success this year for a Twins team with an underwhelming, reworked bullpen.

The Twins are now 4-0 this season in games started by Taj Bradley, who has a 1.25 ERA and 29 strikeouts through his first 21.2 innings pitched. Bradley didn't nearly have his best stuff on Sunday, but he battled through some trouble and completed five innings with just one earned run allowed. He gave up five hits and four walks and struck out seven Toronto batters on 106 pitches.

Three batters into the bottom of the first, Bradley had allowed an double, an RBI single, and a walk. He used a double play grounder and a strikeout to avoid any further damage, then struck out the side in the second inning before stranding five combined runners in the third, fourth, and fifth frames.

Meanwhile, the Twins' bats got busy in the early innings for the second straight day. After Trevor Larnach's three-run home run punctuated a seven-run third inning to support Joe Ryan on Saturday, the Twins gave Bradley a comfortable lead with eight runs between the second and third innings on Sunday.

Tristan Gray got the scoring started with a three-run bomb off of 41-year-old future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer in the second inning. Gray is up to 11 RBI this season despite playing a part-time role.

OKAY TRISTAN GRAY pic.twitter.com/Ow97jKYLJt

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 12, 2026

In the bottom of the third, Kody Clemens crushed his second home run of the season 417 feet. The Twins then loaded the bases on singles from Larnach and Luke Keaschall and a walk from Josh Bell. Matt Wallner hit an RBI single and Victor Caratini hit a sacrifice fly to chase Scherzer from the game after just 2.1 innings.

A Brooks Lee two-run double off of Joe Mantiply made it 8-1 Twins and put eight earned runs onto Scherzer's line. Lee had a great series in Toronto, hitting two home runs and a two-run double, all from the right side of the plate.

After Bradley got through five innings, newly-promoted prospect Andrew Morris entered the game for his MLB debut. With his family on hand, Morris struck out two batters in his first inning of work and got through three innings with one earned run allowed on six hits. He gave up some hard contact but also generated 11 whiffs on 67 pitches.

Justin Topa pitched a scoreless ninth inning to seal the win for Minnesota.

The Twins will look to keep up their winning ways this week, first in a three-game series against the Red Sox that starts on Monday night at Target Field.