Twins Face The Blue Jays After Perez's Strong Outing
TORONTO (AP) -- Minnesota Twins (22-12, first in the AL Central) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (15-21, fourth in the AL East)
Toronto; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Twins: Kyle Gibson (2-1, 4.68 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 29 strikeouts) Blue Jays: Trent Thornton (2-3, 4.08 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 38 strikeouts)
LINE: Twins favored by 1 1/2 runs; over/under is 9 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Blue Jays are 7-10 on their home turf. Toronto hitters have posted a team on-base percentage of .289 this season, led by Justin Smoak with a mark of .373.
The Twins are 11-7 on the road. Minnesota has slugged .500, the highest in the American League. Jorge Polanco leads the club with a .630 slugging percentage, including 20 extra-base hits and six home runs. The Twins won the last meeting 8-0. Martin Perez earned his fifth victory and Jason Castro went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs for Minnesota. Marcus Stroman took his fifth loss for Toronto.
TOP PERFORMERS: Randal Grichuk leads the Blue Jays with 14 extra base hits and is slugging .436. Eric Sogard is 10-for-30 with two doubles, a triple, three home runs and six RBIs over the last 10 games for Toronto.
Polanco leads the Twins with 39 hits and has 12 RBIs. Nelson Cruz has 14 hits and is batting .000 over the last 10 games for Minnesota.
LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Jays: 4-6, .223 batting average, 4.30 ERA, outscored by 17 runs
Twins: 8-2, .240 batting average, 2.43 ERA, outscored opponents by 24 runs
Blue Jays Injuries: Matt Shoemaker: 10-day IL (knee), Clayton Richard: 10-day IL (knee), David Phelps: 10-day IL (elbow), Ryan Borucki: 60-day IL (elbow), Dalton Pompey: 60-day IL (concussion), Devon Travis: 60-day IL (knee).
Twins Injuries: Addison Reed: 10-day IL (thumb), Adalberto Mejia: 10-day IL (calf), Miguel Sano: 10-day IL (heel), Jason Castro: day-to-day (elbow), Willians Astudillo: 10-day IL (hamstring).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.
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