A five-run sixth inning brought an end to the Minnesota Twins three-game winning streak. The Twins lost to the Blue Jays Tuesday night 9-3.
If the big sixth inning hadn’t done enough damage, a grand slam from Brett Lawrie in the ninth certainly did.
Lawrie finished with 5 RBIs in the game for Toronto. His grand slam in the ninth off Twins reliever Jared Burton ended any hope the Twins had of getting back into the game. Munenori Kawasaki was 2-5 and Jose Bautista was 3-5 to lead the Blue Jays.
Phil Hughes threw five shutout innings, but things fell apart for him quickly in the sixth. Toronto put up five runs in the inning. Hughes’ collapse ended a stretch that saw him breeze through the fourth and fifth innings retiring six straight.
Final: #BlueJays 9, #MNTwins 3: Hughes gives up 4 ER over 5 IP after unraveling in the fifth. Burton gives up a grand slam in ninth.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) April 16, 2014
Hughes gave up four straight hits to open the sixth allowing the Blue Jays to quickly erase a 2-0 Twins lead. After he was chased reliever Michael Tonkin came into the game, he also gave up the first earned run of his career.
So, guessing here, but today Phil Hughes "ran out of gas," whereas in his last start (4 runs before the first out) he "battled."
— Derek Wetmore (@DerekWetmore) April 16, 2014
The Blue Jays seemed to have runners on base all night. Through the first eight innings, they had leadoff hits in seven of them. Toronto finished the game with 14 hits and everyone of the players who started collected at least one hit.
It was a disappointing end to a promising start for the Twins. Chris Colabello got the Twins on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning, with an RBI double. Joe Mauer extended Minnesota’s lead to 2-0 in the second with two out single that scored Pedro Florimon.
Colabello was the only Twins player in the lineup with more than one hit, he finished 3-5. Trevor Plouffe added a ninth inning solo home run.
But the Twins offense was quieted quickly by the Blue Jays bullpen. After starter Brandon Morrow lasted just 3 2/3 and gave up two runs on four hits, the Blue Jays bullpen kept the Twins to just three hits the rest of the night.
Toronto is now 12-3 at Target Field all-time. The series continues on Wednesday night.
