The Toronto Blue Jays got into an old-fashioned slugfest with the visiting Minnesota Twins, but fortunately, it didn’t degrade into the type of game they played just yesterday against the Yankees, and the Jays were able to get a home run from Rowdy Tellez in the bottom of the eighth to give them the go ahead in a 9-8 win.
Randall Grichuk was at the top of the lineup after a conversation on Saturday with manager Charlie Montoyo and he did nothing to dispell the notion that he belongs there, going 2/3 with a home run to start the first inning, scoring twice and driving in one. Billy McKinney also walked twice and had a base hit, driving in one and scoring one while Cavan Biggio was 2/4 with two RBI and Luke Maile was 2/3 with a walk and a run, hitting a double.
Dalton Pompey was 1/3 with a run and a stolen base while Norberto Obeso had a solid single. Brock Lundquist was 1/2 with a double and an RBI as well while Cal Stevenson had a sac fly.
On the mound, Aaron Sanchez had his first rough outing of the spring, going three innings and giving up four runs (three earned) on six hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Conor Fisk got into a bit of trouble in his first inning but got out of it without a run. He started off his second inning with two strikeouts but gave up a single, a wild pitch and home run before he was lifted for Shawn Morimando who walked the next batter and got a pop out to end the fifth. Ken Giles came on for the sixth and, after giving up a single and a stolen base, he got a fly out, hit a batter, struck one out and then got a pickoff to end the inning. Ryan Tepera ran into trouble in the seventh, giving up a home run to the first batter he faced, then followed that with a double to Mitch Garver, a throwing error and a walk. He managed to get out of the inning with two runs scoring however. Justin Shafer had a relatively easy eighth inning, giving up a double around a groundout, a strikeout and a pop out and Justin Watts got two strikeouts and a lineout to finish the game in the ninth.
It will be a battle of lefties on Monday with veteran southpaw Clayton Richard going for the Blue Jays and former Blue Jay Daniel Norris going for the Tigers in Dunedin.
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