Back-to-back homers from Bautista and Donaldson, plus a great start from Stroman, Jays beat Twins

Blue Jays 3 Twins 1

Once again we score early. 3 runs in the first inning. Back-to-back homers from Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson and then a Michael Saunders walk, with a Troy Tulowitzki double to drive him home.

Then, 8 innings of nothing.

We had chances. We had 9 hits. Kevin Pillar (maybe he's coming out of his slump) and Saunders had 2 each, with each having a double. Everyone else had 1 hit, except Edwin Encarnacion (0 for 4, speaking of slumps) and Russell Martin (0 for 4, 1 k, but he did have a couple of hard hit balls).

Marcus Stroman, like Happ yesterday, was great through 7 innings, pitching a 1-hitter to that point. Then, he gave up back-to-back singles to start the 8. We thought we were seeing a replay of yesterday. But, after failing to get his bat on a pitch, trying to bunt, Bryan Dozier swung and bounced one to Josh, who touched third and then threw to first to get the double play. Other teams mess up bunts too.

Roberto Osuna came in, looking for the 4-out save. He got a pop out on his first pitch. And then had a quick 3 up 3 down 9, getting 2 strikeouts.

There was a bit of excitement in the fifth inning. Twins starter Phil Hughes came way inside on Donaldson and then, his next pitch was behind Josh. Clearly intent, but no warning or anything from the umpire. Josh wasn't thrilled. I get so tired of the fun police.

John Gibbons came out to save Donaldson from his second ejection in a row, and ended up getting tossed himself. Joe West pissed me off by, after ejecting Gibby, and when Gibby was walking away, going after him to get the argument going again. Umpires should never do this.

Josh was fired up all game and made some terrific plays on defense.

Kevin Pillar also made an amazing catch going back on a ball, and diving to catch it. With a runner on first, that catch saved, at least, 1 run.

Jays of the Day: Stroman (.377 WPA) and Osuna (.140). I'm giving honorable mention to Donaldson, Bautista and Pillar.

No Suckage Jays. Martin had the low mark, at -.078.

Jays get tomorrow off, and then start a series against the Yankees Tuesday.

We only had 500 comments in a rather slow GameThread. I led us to victory.