Barger’s clutch hit helps Blue Jays rally to win slugfest over Twins

TORONTO — George Springer slid headfirst into home, hopped to his feet and let out a scream while looking to the sky. 

He’d just scored from first base in the eighth inning on Addison Barger‘s two-run, go-ahead double to the right-field wall that brought 42,361 to their feet at Rogers Centre.

Jeff Hoffman followed by closing out the ninth inning, one day after blowing a save, as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Minnesota Twins, 9-8, in a wild, back-and-forth slugfest that featured eight home runs. 

“It was a crazy game,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “Ball’s kind of flying a little bit. We were joking in like the fourth inning, ‘You know, you need 10 tonight.’ So, yeah, that was a little bit of a different one.”

There was plenty going on indeed, but the most important moment came when, with the Blue Jays down by one run, Barger sent a hanging slider from Twins reliever Michael Tonkin soaring at 110.3 m.p.h. to the top of the outfield fence. 

Moments before, Ty France clubbed a pinch-hit home run — his first since joining the Blue Jays at the trade deadline — that energized the crowd. It turns out he was using Barger’s old bat that was lying around in the team’s cages. 

“He randomly decided to use it,” Barger told reporters. “I haven’t seen the bat since last year and he had a homer with it. And I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I’m just gonna use that.’ And it worked.”

Luck or not, it was a hit Barger needed. He’d been batting .130 with a .401 OPS over his past 14 games and was sidelined earlier this week while feeling under the weather. 

Blue Jays manager John Schneider inserted Barger into the No. 2 spot in the lineup on Wednesday and noted before the game that having him sandwiched between leadoff man Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. would lead to more pitches to hit. 

“It’s big for him,” said Schneider. “He’s one of the guys that’s gotten us to this point and I think (it helps) a younger player kind of going through it, feeling all sorts of (things) at the end of August at the big-league level. So, really, really pumped for him.”

Schneider’s decision to go back to Hoffman, who allowed four runs in Tuesday’s loss, also worked nicely. The manager expressed trust in his closer in the wake of that blowup and said following Wednesday’s win that Hoffman was rearing for a shot at redemption. 

“A lot of times it’s the best thing to do so guys don’t sit and think about it,” said Schneider. “You got to have a short memory and you got to move on to the next thing. And Hoff, like everybody else on this team, will move on to the next thing.”

Blue Jays starter Eric Lauer will look to move on after struggling mightily against Minnesota’s hitters. 

Byron Buxton led off the game by depositing a 2-2 cutter from Lauer into the centre-field stands and the Twins kept the laser show going. Buxton added his second homer in the third inning and, three batters later, Luke Keaschall went deep with a solo shot. 

The Blue Jays’ defence didn’t help matters in the fourth, with catcher Tyler Heineman and shortstop Bo Bichette committing errors on consecutive plays that led to two runs. Twins shortstop Brooks Lee launched a homer in the fifth and, by the time Lauer’s day was over, he’d surrendered eight runs (six earned) on 10 hits over 4.2 innings.

“I really just didn’t have a great command of the zone tonight and that was kind of the story of the night for me,” Lauer said.

It was his first time pitching in 11 days, due to a combination of off days and the Blue Jays deploying a six-man rotation, but Lauer refused to blame the unusual layoff.

“I just got to be better,” he said. “Honestly, I’m not going to let that be an excuse. It’s just something that I need to lock in a little bit better on and make sure I’m commanding the zone the way I know I can.”

The Blue Jays’ offence bailed him out by counterpunching the Twins all night. Davis Schneider belted two home runs and Andres Gimenez added a solo homer, helping the Blue Jays improve to 78-56 as they took two of three from the Twins ahead of an anticipated tilt with the MLB-best Milwaukee Brewers beginning Friday. 

That figures to be an exciting three-game series with big crowds that are getting used to signature comeback wins from the home side. 

“It was a pretty electric atmosphere,” said John Schneider. “These guys do not quit. They do not give a shit who they’re playing against. They don’t care what the situation is. I love it.”