By Lance Hornby
TORONTO — It was Back To School Day at the ballpark, but back to the drawing board for Joe Biagini and the Toronto Blue Jays.
After nurturing Biagini in Triple-A Buffalo this month for an audition as a starter, Toronto saw mixed results in the right-hander’s 3 2/3rds innings in a 7-2 loss Sunday to the Minnesota Twins. The visitors twice loaded the bases on him and though he was able to limit the damage with key strikeouts, his team ran hot and cold on defence.
Three Byron Buxton homers off three different pitchers made it a rout at the Rogers Centre before 42,478 fans.
Josh Donaldson’s throwing error sustained a Twins drive in the fourth inning, before right fielder Nori Aoki miscalculated the surface spring of a Joe Mauer hit that went over his head to the wall and counted as a triple. Two batters later, Buxton walloped the first of his home-run hat trick.
Biagini, looking for some consistency all year with the big club, was 1-1 in four starts in Buffalo with a 3.12 ERA. Fifty of his 85 pitches Sunday were strikes; he fanned four batters and walk three.
Aaron Loup and Matt Dermody came in to silence the Twins, other than Buxton touching Dermody for his second homer in the seventh. Together with Dominic Leone and Tim Mayza, they recorded 17 strikeouts, though Mayza gave up Buxton’s third drive in the ninth.
However, Toronto’s offence could not keep pace, after 10 runs the day before in a bizarre one-run win over the wild card-contending Twins. The first five batters in the order didn’t get past first base. Minnesota starter Kyle Gibson’s key moment came in the second inning, when he won a prolonged battle with the bases loaded and lead-off hitter Ezequiel Carrera up, eventually inducing him into a double play.
The bases were full three times before the end of the third inning, but it was the Twins who took greater advantage. Though Toronto catcher Miguel Montero made a nice tag at the plate on Mauer from a Ryan Goins stab and throw home in the first and then ended a rundown with Jorge Palanco, there was still a one-run single by Eddie Rosario, while another bloop from Kenny Vargas cashed two more.
Montero had a one-out double in the second inning and chugged all the way around from second to score on an Aoki single. Donaldson got himself picked off first the next inning. Aoki atoned with his fifth home run of the season, putting Gibson’s first offering of the fourth into right, one of seven Toronto hits in all.
Toronto missed a chance to win its fourth straight series at home and give at least a hope of reaching .500 before the end of the season. Now 61-69, they’ll be hard-pressed to take the next set, against the division-leading Boston Red Sox starting Monday.
Manager John Gibbons continued rotating days off for his busiest players, this time sitting centre fielder Kevin Pillar. Carrera nearly made a Pillar-like Superman grab on Palanco in the third, but it just rolled off of his glove.