Blue Jays and Jose Berrios shine in Twin killing blowout

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This time, Jose Berrios didn’t have to worry about the early hook.

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This time, during a return to the scene of the dispiriting crime, the Blue Jays starter didn’t have to worry about a dearth of run support either, a far cry from the stunning experience in his previous start at Target Field.

Granted, this time it was meaningless late-season baseball for Berrios and the Jays and a full-on laugher of a 15-0 win over the Minnesota Twins as the Jays turn the page into the final month of a lost season at a park where the calamity and subsequent demise all began.

Berrios is a pro and has surely long since buried much of the painful memory of that playoff debacle last October, the game where he was pitching his heart out only to get yanked after three innings and 47 pitches in a playoff-ending contest the Jays would lose 2-0.

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It’s also true that, on some levels, much of what happened back on Oct. 4 is ancient history as a Jays team in some form of rebuilding metamorphosis looks to see what it has in a bunch of young players who came out mashing on Saturday night with three homers and nine runs in the first two innings.

But Berrios is human as well and it’s difficult to imagine that at least part of him is still pained by that fateful outing and a decision that jumpstarted an off-season of turmoil and a 2024 campaign that has been effectively over for weeks now. In the aftermath, Berrios was outspoken about how the move gutted him and his teammates — both the pre-game plan concocted by the front office and executed by manager John Schneider — and the way it was communicated to players.

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The fallout became the prevailing narrative for the Jays and general manager Ross Atkins through an uninspiring and ultimately disastrous off-season, that led to a dispiriting 2024 campaign, that ultimately led to the place the team finds itself as September arrives.

But enough of the past because Atkins and his staff are about to face the most critical period in their tenure — which is saying something.

So what to expect and what to make of the final month of this lost season? The pressure is off for the current group with the prospect of a third consecutive playoff sweep off the table.

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A 24-game tryout from the hot-hitting bunch won’t solve what ails the team, but at least it will provide an indicator of what depth the team has to work with and what the priorities need to be in the winter.

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And more specifically, what it needs to get back to the place where Berrios was the previous time he visited the Twin Cities.

BRILLIANT BERRIOS

Moving to the present, it’s hard to imagine any manager anywhere reaching for an early hook the way Berrios is pitching right now.

Facing his old Twins team, Berrios was terrific for a fourth consecutive start pitching six shutout innings and allowing just one hit through the first five. The 14th win matched a career-high as he continued his recent strong run.

The Puerto Rican right-hander entered Saturday’s contest having pitched seven innings and allowing two earned runs or fewer in his four previous outings, the first Jays starter to do so since Robbie Ray in August 2021. With a win well in hand, there was no need to send Berrios out for the seventh on Saturday, even though his pitch count was at an efficient 63.

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HIT PARADE

After a dormant mini stretch in which the Jays had managed just two runs in three days — including two shutouts — the bats were booming early as they went on the attack of rookie Twins starter Zebby Matthews. After leadoff man George Springer was hit by a pitch, Dalton Varsho belted his 17th home run and two batters later, Spencer Horowitz added a two-run shot of his own … The Jays sent 11 to the plate in the first, scoring seven runs on seven hits. The third Toronto homer — another two-run blast from Addison Barger — came in the second as the Jays opened up a 9-0 lead … The seven-run first matched the Jays biggest single-inning output of the season, a mark they had hit twice previously … The Jays added a fourth homer in the sixth inning, a solo blast from Will Wagner.

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AROUND THE BASES

What a night for Horwitz before the game was even a third complete. Batting cleanup as the designated hitter, Horwitz followed his first-inning homer (his ninth) with singles in the second and third … An RBI single from Vlad Guerrero Jr. in the third inning gave him 89 on the season, just five short of his 2023 output with 24 games remaining … The Jays reached season high in runs (12) and hits (17) by the sixth inning before ending the night with 15 and 23 in those respective categories … With a blowout well in effect, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent position players to the mound for the final two innings of the blowout … It was a stats-building night all around — witness Wagner, who went five-for-six to vault his season average to .357.

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