Note to readers: Columnist La Velle E. Neal III will be updating this regularly from the Target Field press box during Wednesday’s Game 2. Follow along and comment, and keep a closer eye on the action with live pitch-by-pitch updates on our Star Tribune GameView.
4:38 p.m.: Arms race
Sonny Gray might be the best No. 2 starter in the postseason. He’s a good man to send to the mound if you’re trying to save your season. On Wednesday, the Twins needed him to knock out the Blue Jays.
He opened with three scoreless innings, but it wasn’t easy. The first three Toronto hitters swung at the first pitch and pushed Gray deep into counts. He struck out Cavan Biggio — the Twins refuse to throw him a fastball — with two on to end the first. But the Blue Jays fouled off six offerings from Gray pitches in the inning, and those things run up pitch counts. Gray had to maneuver out of a two-out jam in the second as well, getting George Springer to fly out on his 21st pitch of the inning.
The third inning was Gray’s easiest, as he shook off a two-out single by Bob Bichette with a strike out of Biggio. Gray headed into the fourth inning having thrown 54 pitches. So the Twins bullpen will be activated sometime in the fifth unless Gray has a couple of easy innings.
Jose Berrios, on the other hand, is sizzling, holding the Twins to three hits with five strikeouts. He’s the sharper one of this matchup of past and present Twins.
3:38 p.m.: First pitch
Game 2 is on. We were told, by the way, that the Twins will pop bottles and spray beer if they win the series. I was going to wear a sportscoat today but instead grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled a pair of jeans out of the hamper.
It’s much cooler, with more clouds, in downtown Minneapolis today for Game 2, compared to yesterday’s warm and sunny Game 1 start.
Have fun today, Twins fans.
2:32 p.m.: Pregame, the sequel
Toronto manager John Schneider’s pre-game press conference at Target Field before today’s Game 2 was interrupted twice by an emergency warning test. He was in mid-sentence when the alarm on every smartphone in the press room went off. It was part of the national test. Schneider was in the middle of an answer when he was interrupted.
One person’s alarm included a warning message — mine — and it was in Spanish. I was unable to turn down the volume. I tried muffling the speaker but gave up and just turned the phone off. Schneider tried to continue when someone else’s phone went off.
“This is a good sign,” he joked.
It sure is an emergency for the Blue Jays, who need to win Wednesday to force a Game 3 on Thursday at Target Field. The team that has dropped Game 1 of a three-game series usually loses the series, so Toronto is looking to go against that grain.
“It’s getting the big hit,” Schneider said. “I thought our bats yesterday were really competitive and didn’t get the ball to fall where we wanted to in big situations.
“So I think that is probably the key. You want to try to keep them at bay early and try to not let them jump out to a lead. But it’s coming through in big spots really is what it is.
“Yesterday Royce (Lewis) did that twice. And that was the difference in the game. They made a couple of good plays in the infield and outfield as well.”
2:16 p.m.: Pregame
Former Twin Jose Berrios is on the mound today for the Blue Jays in Game 2. We all are familiar with his stuff, but how sharp will he be? He gave up four runs in each of his final two outings of the regular season and has had a week off since. Will the time off help or hurt Berrios? We all know he’s most effective when hitters chase his pitches that drop out of the strike zone. Will the Twins be patient enough to get baserunners aboard? Will Berrios carry enough of the plate to get them to swing? We’re about to find out.
The announced Game 1 attendance was 38,450 — a sellout despite empty seats being visible around the stadium. The Twins consider 38,000 a sellout. I guess my gas tank is full when 9/10ths of it is filled. A friend of mine paid $13 for a ticket on the secondary market for Game 1. I just checked another site and found single tickets for $33, so there’s a little more demand today for a potential clinching game.
Whether you come to the game or monitor it from wherever you are, check back here every few innings for observations.
… Oh, one more thing. Andy Fletcher is normally a good umpire, but he flubbed a few calls in Game 1. He called strike three on Edouard Julien on a 3-2 pitch in the second inning when it was a ball. That would have loaded the bases with one out and Lewis — Mr. Grand Slam — two batters away. And he missed a strike Pablo Lopez threw in the sixth that could have changed the inning. According to the site Umpire Scorecards, Fletcher’s work behind the plate favored the Blue Jays by 1.46 runs. The Twins could have won by a larger margin if Fletcher stayed on point. But the game is played and judged by humans. And humans make mistakes. Automatic strike zones don’t!
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