{"id":645906,"date":"2026-05-03T22:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/645906\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T22:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:06:12","slug":"blue-jays-drop-finale-to-twins-as-rotation-outlook-continues-to-evolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/645906\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays drop finale to Twins as rotation outlook continues to evolve"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS \u2013 An opportunity to reach the .500 mark for the first time since April 4 slipped away for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> in the finale of a four-game set with the Minnesota Twins amid wider developments for their pitching picture.<\/p>\n

Trey Yesavage<\/a> allowed only one run over four innings of a 4-3 loss while breaking the 80-pitch barrier and generating more whiffs (15) than in his season-debut (five), although he was unable to replicate the pitch efficiency from that outing. Still, his splitter looked much more like the weapon he yielded last fall, an important step in his progression.<\/p>\n

His progress stood in contrast to Jose Berrios, who allowed seven runs on six hits \u2013 three of them homers \u2013 and four walks during his latest rehab start for triple-A Buffalo, when his fastball averaged 90.1 m.p.h. and topped out at 92.1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the second straight start in which his stuff was down as he works to return from a stress fracture in his right elbow, a worrying trend, given that priorities for him Sunday included re-establishing his fastball command and velocity.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays had hoped to reinsert him into the rotation for the next turn, which raises the stakes for how Eric Lauer fares Monday at the Tampa Bay Rays. In limbo since Yesavage\u2019s return bumped him to the bullpen, the left-hander is expected to serve either as the starter or throw bulk behind an opener, and if Berrios needs more time on rehab, a pathway back to a regular turn is there for the taking.<\/p>\n

As all that played out, a frustrating day unrolled at Target Field, as Braydon Fisher gave up three runs in the fourth as the Twins opened up a 4-0 lead, one they didn\u2019t relinquish in securing a series split.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tyler Heieneman was removed by John Schneider due to a “manager’s decision” after flying out with the bases loaded to end the sixth, replaced by Brandon Valenzuela for the bottom half.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays were not without their chances, especially in that sixth, when they put men on the corners to open the inning \u2013 Jesus Sanchez stumbled coming around first on a ball in the gap to turn a double into a single \u2013 but came away with only one run on Daulton Varsho\u2019s clever bunt single.<\/p>\n

Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> homered for a third straight game in the ninth, a two-run shot off Justin Topa, to make it a one-run game, but they were otherwise stymied by the Twins bullpen \u2013 including 3.2 shutout innings from Andrew Morris \u2013 once ace Joe Ryan left two batters in due to elbow soreness.<\/p>\n

Lenyn Sosa hit into a game-ending double play with two on.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2013 An opportunity to reach the .500 mark for the first time since April 4 slipped away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-645906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}