TORONTO – By the time Carlos Santana’s three-run homer cleared the centre-field wall in the third inning to open up a 7-1 Minnesota Twins lead, this felt like a repeat episode of the 2024 Toronto Blue Jays show we’ve watched all season. Only four times beforehand had they scored more than six runs in a game. A struggling bullpen was in no shape to hold the game where it was and give the lineup a chance to rally. Even if it did, the offence hadn’t erased a deficit bigger than two runs all season long.
But this turned out to be a flip-the-script Saturday for the Blue Jays, who scored nine times in their final six turns at the plate, reached double digits for the first time this year and rallied for their timeliest and arguably most important win of the season, 10-8 over the Twins.
Losers in 11 of 15 coming in, with a daunting schedule ahead and Alek Manoah due to take the mound in Sunday’s series finale, the comeback provided a steadying moment. One game, no matter how thrilling, will not turn around a season, but save for a weird outing from Kevin Gausman, the Blue Jays performed as they were designed.
The last few days we’ve been talking about when we get punched in the mouth, things aren’t going our way, it’s really hard to turn it on and stay positive. And we’ve done that,” said Ernie Clement, who came through with an RBI single in the seventh that put the Blue Jays up 9-8. “We’ve done a great job of not counting ourselves out and staying in the fight and punching back when we get punched. Honestly, it started the last few games. We get punched in the mouth, we’re getting back up now. This team’s never going to be out of a ball game and I think you saw that today.”
A week ago, as the Blue Jays were barrelling toward an 11-8 loss to end a disappointing series in Washington and a 10-1 thumping from Philadelphia that prompted a team meeting afterward, a win like this was hard to imagine. But they stabilized themselves with a 5-3 win over the Phillies right afterward and even in Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Twins, when a Clement liner deflected off Griffin Jax’s butt right to first for the final out, stranding the tying run at third, their compete was several notches higher.
That carried over into Saturday, when the Twins seemed set for a 17th win in 19 games before the Blue Jays rewrote the finish.
“It was a conscious effort and a conscious decision from everybody in the locker room to shift our mindset a little bit because when we got down before, you could feel the energy get taken out of the room,” said Clement. “It’s been a while since we came back from down a couple runs. We got it out in the open, talked as a group and challenged ourselves to be better when things aren’t going our way. It’s a testament to the character in the locker room, for sure.”
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