Some September hope in a tough loss to Twins for Blue Jays

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Despite a 4-3 loss to the hometown Twins on Sunday afternoon, it was the kind of game that made you feel good about the Blue Jays future.

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In that regard, it was a fitting September game for a team no longer playing for a post-season berth.

With a day off for the Jays on Monday and some season-long ailments starting to accumulate, the Jays brass decided it would be a good day to give most of their regulars a couple of days off in a row. It meant no Vladimir Guerrero Jr, no Dalton Varsho, no George Springer, and no Alejandro Kirk.

It opened the door for a slew of maybe not youngsters, but certainly less experienced major-league players such as Nathan Lukes, Spencer Horwitz, Leo Jimenez, Luis De Los Santos, and Brian Serven.

All told the Jays had five actual rookies in the lineup and less accumulated major-league experience than any team in any game this season.

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It took an eighth inning three-run homer by Royce Lewis off Chad Green to deny this rather green lineup from pulling off what would have been an upset win over a team very much still in contention.

Other than the unearned run the Jays gave up in the seventh inning which resulted from a throwing error by De Los Santos, this triple-A heavy lineup acquitted itself about as well as anyone could have hoped.

Granted they were a little overmatched at the plate with Twins starter Baily Ober who has been one of Minnesota’s more consistent starters. But even then, when Ober’s day ended after six innings, the Jays maintained a 1-0 lead.

Ernie Clement, one of the few semi-regulars in the lineup on Sunday, gave Toronto its early lead in the first inning when he jumped on Ober’s first offering and sent it more than 400 feet into the left-field seats.

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The story of the game from a Jays standpoint, if it wasn’t how well the less-experienced lineup conducted itself in a game that meant plenty for the Twins and little to the Toronto organization, it was a fourth-inning play that epitomized that.

Second baseman Jimenez, one of five actual rookies In Toronto’s starting lineup, was the very definition of perseverance in this one. It started with his highlight-reel catch of a foul ball down the first base line in the fourth inning. Protecting that 1-0 lead and with a runner on second and just one out in the inning, Jimenez went full speed and head-first into the netting to snare a ball that looked uncatchable.

Unfortunately for Jimenez, the protective netting gave way under his diving and driving weight, resulting in him going into the seats and landing on his back in the first row of those concrete stands.

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Jimenez held on to the ball, which was alertly retrieved from his glove by Addison Barger as the base-runner tagged and rounded third to head home. Barger gunned him down at the plate, though it turned out to be moot in the end. Once Jimenez left the field of play with the ball, the base-runner could advance only one base, so even though Barger technically got him out at home, the play was already dead and the runner went back to third.

In the eighth inning, when the Jays would re-take the lead with a pair of runs after Minnesota scored that unearned run in the seventh, Jimenez again found himself taking one for the team as a Griffin Jax fastball rode up and in on him, hitting him on the shoulder.

A little of the sting was taken out of that as it forced in a run with the bases already loaded but, all in all, a bruising kind of day for the young infielder.

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The Jays managed to get three scoreless innings out of starter Yariel Rodriguez but it was clear from the 30-plus pitches he needed just to get out of the first that this was not going to be his day.

As it turned out it wasn’t the Jays’ day either, but there were enough flashes of major league ability and talent from the up-and-coming Jays that even the most jaded fan had to leave this one somewhat hopeful.

Green took the loss in this one giving up a pair of hits in the ninth before Lewis brought them all home with his homer just over the fence in left.

Standout Twins reliever Jax got the win despite allowing the two earned runs in the eighth inning.

The Jays will have Monday off before they open a homestand against the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.

mganter@postmedia.com

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