Mitch Garver keyed another Twins win on Tuesday night but not before he suffered a scare with a bat hitting him in the neck.
It happened in the first inning when Toronto’s Randal Grichuk flew out to left field, but his bat snapped above his hands and the momentum of his swing brought the broken piece behind him, with the jagged end of the busted bat hitting Garver in the neck.
A trainer applied some ointment to the cut on Garver’s neck and he stayed in the game, which was huge because in the sixth inning he cracked a two-run homer to put the Twins up 3-0, the score they ultimately won by.
Had Garver’s injury been worse and forced him out of the game, C.J. Cron would’ve entered as the emergency catcher because Jason Castro was nursing a sore elbow after being hit by a pitch and Willians Astudillo is still on the injured list with a hamstring injury.
“C.J. had an absolute heart attack,” Garver joked after the game, via the Twins. “The story was that the first thing he did was turn to Wes [Johnson], our pitching coach, and say, ‘I don’t know how to call pitches. I’ve never called pitches before.’ So that was good.”
In addition to homering, Garver called a great game behind the plate as the Twins posted a second straight shutout win over the Blue Jays. Jose Berrios went seven shutout innings and Taylor Rogers earned his fourth save of the season.
The Twins go for the series sweep Wednesday at 6:07 p.m.
