Sogard, Blue Jays top Twins for rare series win
Eric Sogard had a three-run double to highlight a five-run fourth inning and Justin Smoak, Randal Grichuk and Teoscar Hernandez each homered to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis.
The win was the third in four games for the Blue Jays, got their first series win of the season. Joe Biagini (1-1) picked up the win in relief of starter Clay Buchholz, who gave up three runs on six hits over 4 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out four. Ken Giles struck out two while pitching a scoreless ninth to notch his sixth save.
Eddie Rosario hit two home runs and Willians Astudillo and Jonathan Schoop each had two hits for Minnesota. Michael Pineda (2-1) suffered the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits with a walk and a strikeout in 3 2/3 innings.
Grichuk, who finished with two hits and two runs scored, gave the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead in the first with his fourth homer of the season.
The Twins took a 3-1 lead in the second, sending eight batters to the plate in the process. Rosario led off the inning with a home run to right field. One out later, Marwin Gonzalez walked and advanced to third on a single by Astudillo. Schoop then drove in Gonzalez with a bloop single to right and Astudillo later scored on a fielder's choice by Byron Buxton.
Toronto chased Pineda in the fourth when it batted around en route to a 6-3 lead. Grichuk started the inning with a bloop single to right and then scored on Smoak's third homer of the year, a 408-foot drive to right. The Blue Jays then loaded the bases on singles by Rowdy Tellez and Billy McKinney sandwiched around a walk by Brandon Drury and Sogard drove them all in with a double off the right field fence.
Hernandez hit a solo home run to left in the eighth off reliever Tyler Duffey to increase Toronto's lead to 7-3. Rosario answered with his second homer of the game and fourth in five games, a 408-foot solo shot into the second deck in right-center, in the bottom half of the inning to end the scoring.
--Field Level Media
