The Minnesota Twins topped the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 yesterday in Minnesota.
Royce Lewis homered in both of his first two at-bats and Pablo López allowed 1 run in 5 2/3 innings as the Twins stopped an 18-game postseason losing streak in the opener of their AL Wild Card series with Toronto.
Facing López, the Blue Jays finally got on the board when Kevin Kiermaier’s 2-out single drove in Bo Bichette in the sixth, but they left 9 runners on base and finished with just 6 hits.
The Twins, who had not won a playoff game since 2002, were held to just 5 hits, but made the most of them with Lewis hitting a 2-run shot in the first and a leadoff homer in the third, both off Toronto starter Kevin Gausman.
The Twins take an early 1-0 lead in the best-of-3 series. Game 2 is today with all 3 games played at Target Field in Minnesota.
Elsewhere yesterday in the first day of the MLB Wild Card round:
In Philadelphia, Zack Wheeler struck out 8 in a sensational 6 2/3 inning effort, and was backed by RBI doubles from Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm as the Phillies topped the Miami Marlins 4-1.
In Milwaukee, Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte homered on back-to-back pitches and Gabriel Moreno also went deep, helping the Diamondback rally over the Brewers 6-3 in Arizona’s first playoff appearance since 2017.
And in Tampa Bay, Jordan Montgomery made an exceptional start, scattering 6 hits over 7 scoreless innings, Corey Seager and Josh Jung drove in runs and the Texas Rangers blanked the Rays 4-0, benefitting from 4 Tampa Bay errors.