TORONTO — Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was agitated after Wednesday's 6-5 loss to the Blue Jays. His team blew three leads in another seesaw game at Rogers Centre. And if that wasn't enough, he watched his two leading RBI men get injured.
Left fielder Delmon Young strained his left wrist when he collided with center fielder Denard Span on Jose Bautista's two-run inside-the-park home run in the fifth inning.
First baseman Justin Morneau left the game in the eighth inning after getting his bell rung on a takeout slide at second base.
Young and Morneau could return to the lineup for Thursday night's series finale, but Gardenhire said he'll have to see how they feel.
Injuries heal. Close losses can haunt for a long time. A team that has played in two consecutive Game 163 tiebreaker games knows how tough losses like this can be. "A frustrating game, a game that I thought we should have won," Gardenhire said.
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Gardenhire noted that Toronto scored in three innings right after the Twins had scored. "I think if you look at the boxscore ... you just don't win baseball games like that," he said. "You have to shut somebody down."
The Twins had leads of 2-1, 3-2 and 5-4 and came away empty. They wasted a big night by Orlando Hudson, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI and finished a double short of the cycle against his former team.
Twins starter Kevin Slowey allowed five runs in 6u2153 innings. The second run scored on a two-out bloop single by Edwin Encarnacion, and the next two runs came on Bautista's homer — Toronto's first inside-the-park homer since 2003.
"I certainly feel like this was my game to win," Slowey said. "We scored those runs in the fourth and fifth 1/8innings3/8 and gave me an opportunity to go back out there, and unfortunately I wasn't able to get the job done."
Hudson's two-out RBI triple gave the Twins a 5-4 lead in the seventh, and Slowey went back to the mound. After a one-out triple by leadoff hitter Fred Lewis, Gardenhire turned to Matt Guerrier, who had four days of rest after his last outing.
Alex Gonzalez tied it with a sacrifice fly to center and after a two-out walk by Bautista, Vernon Wells ended an 0-for-21 skid with an RBI double to center.
Guerrier entered July with a 1.72 ERA, but he's been scored upon in three appearances, raising that number to 3.03.
But fatigue didn't seem to be the issue this time as much as pitch selection, a decision made by both Guerrier and catcher Joe Mauer.
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With the infield in, Guerrier got ahead of Gonzalez 0-2 before throwing a fastball, which turned into the sacrifice fly. "You get 0-2 on a guy and try to throw a fastball up — I don't get it, that's just giving him an RBI," Gardenhire said.
Bautista's walk was frustrating because it came with two outs. And Guerrier also got ahead of Wells 0-2 before getting beat with a fastball.
"With Vernon, you saw him chase and miss a breaking ball by 2 feet, and then we go fastball away on him and he goes off the wall," Gardenhire said. "That's just bad selection of pitches and not executing. Pretty disappointing."
