Toronto Blue Jays Topic Page

Scott Baker will try to bounce back from his rough debut last Wednesday where he surrendered 6 runs in 4 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. Pitching for the Red Sox will be knuckleballer Tim Wakefield who is coming off a complete game, 2 run effort against Oakland. Wakefield can be somewhat of a coin toss; his success largely depends on how his knuckleball is working. Last season he allowed 5 or more runs in 7 appearances, however still ended the season with a respectable 4.13 ERA. He's had 2 pretty good starts, so hopefully the Twins have found him on one of his down days.

Up to this point, Glen Perkins has been the only pitcher that has given the Twins truly good starts. Last week he didn't get the win as the Twins lost 2-1 after Perkins pitched 8 innings of 1-run baseball. On Tuesday night it looked like Perkins might again become the victim of an offensive sleeper. With a 2-1 lead in the seventh and bases loaded, the Twins had a prime opportunity to separate the score a little bit. Unfortunately, Michael Cuddyer struck out and Joe Crede grounded into an inning ending double play.

The Blue Jays tied the game on Perkins in the eighth, and the game was ultimately not decided until Joe Crede redeemed himself with a walk-off double that score Justin Morneau in the 11th.

The Twins have said that Scott Baker will be activated in time to start Wednesday's home game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Obviously R.A. Dickey will be knocked out of his spot in the rotation, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be sent packing.

The Twins will return home on Friday night after a 9 game road trip that started out rough, but finished on a more positive note with two straight victories over Texas. The Twins will hope to keep the momentum going against a Toronto team that's recovered a bit after losing their first 9 games of May.

The Twins won Thursday night's series finale in 10 innings by a score of 2-1. The big story of the night was Brad Radke's encouraging start. He needed just 57 pitches to get through five innings and allowed just 1 unearned run. The Twins offense waited until there were 2 outs in the ninth inning to do anything, so Radke didn't get in the win what was likely the final regular season start of his career. Assuming he's healthy enough, it seems likely that Radke will be the Twins' third starter in the playoffs.

Carlos Silva's ineffectiveness on Wednesday night cost the Twins another loss against baseball's worst team. In Silva's final start of the season he saw he ERA jump back over the 6.00 mark. If there's any positive you can take from it, it's that Silva is even more unlikely to win a spot in the postseason rotation. He shouldn't even make the roster. Kansas City has been a much tougher opponent for the Twins than they should've been this year. The Twins have just an 11-7 record against the .373 Royals.

Twins Win! Only Tony Batista could be stopped tonight. The first few days of this season have seen a lot of high scoring games, so clearly a lot of pitchers haven't worked off their rust yet. However, it was still nice to see the Twins put some runs up on the board. It provides a glimmer of hope that maybe this offense is improved over last season. In all of 2005 the most runs the Twins scored in a single game was 12. We've already surpassed that with 13 tonight!

Exhibition Game.

In Baseball, you'd rather be playing well in the month of September than in April, so you have some momentum going into the playoffs. However, when it comes to making the playoffs, April games count just as much as those in September. The first few weeks of the Twins' season could prove to be pretty important when it comes to how the season is going to turn out. Let's take a look at the tough matchups they'll be facing right away.

Spring Training Game.