If today’s lineups look familiar, there’s a good reason… the Twins are sticking with the lineup that was a winner last night and the Jays are only swapping out their catcher in the #9 spot of the batting order.
Both teams have some young pitchers on the mound. Rookie Drew Hutchison is making the fifth start of the year… and of his career… for the Jays. In his last outing, Hutchison was the pitcher that gave up Albert Pujols’ first HR of the season. Of course, recent call-up PJ Walters is making his first start for the Twins. Walters made one brief relief appearance last year for Toronto after being acquired from the Cardinals organization but was sent to AAA immediately after that appearance.
For those of you who were wondering whether sending Brian Duensing out to pitch three innings on Wednesday was part of some sort of plan to stretch him out in case he needs to join the rotation, the Strib’s Joe Christensen tweeted that such was, in fact, the case.
On the injury front, things sound encouraging for Justin Morneau’s return at some point during the upcoming road trip. His wrist feels fine after some cage work and he hopes to face live BP this weekend some time. He’s eligible to come off the DL on Wednesday.
Let’s see if our guys can win two in a row for the second time this season! – JC
| BLUE JAYS |
@ |
TWINS |
| Johnson, K, 2B | Span, CF | |
| Escobar, Y, SS | Dozier, SS | |
| Bautista, RF | Mauer, C | |
| Encarnacion, DH | Willingham, LF | |
| Thames, E, LF | Doumit, DH | |
| Lawrie, 3B | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Rasmus, CF | Parmelee, 1B | |
| Lind, 1B | Mastroianni, RF | |
| Mathis, C | Carroll, 2B | |
| _Hutchison, P | _Walters, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Toronto | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
If I was PJ Walters, I might be wondering what the heck happened to the Major League hitting he was supposed to have supporting him when he got called up to the Big Leagues. Walters threw six very good innings, striking out five and walking none. He gave up just six hits, but one of those was a “just barely” home run to Jose Bautista and that provided the margin of victory for the Jays.
Once again, the bullpen did its job, with Brian Duensing throwing two shutout innings and Jeff Gray adding another. The Twins had opportunities but were a combined 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. You won’t win often with stats like that… but then that’s a lessen you’d think this team would have learned by now.