Kazuma Okamoto and Byron Buxton duel it out one more time as Blue Jays look for series victory

Blue Jays Gameday (May 3): Kazuma Okamoto and Byron Buxton duel it out one more time as Blue Jays look for series victory

I’m not sure what everyone has on their Sunday slate, but it’s a great day to win a series over the Minnesota Twins.

After getting a seven-inning quality start from Dylan Cease, the Toronto Blue Jays churned out an eight-run 8th inning to bury the Twins 11-4 Saturday afternoon, giving them their 9th win in their past 13 games. On Sunday afternoon, Trey Yesavage looks to follow up his nice start to the season with another quality outing against Minnesota.

Yesavage missed the first month of the season with right shoulder impingement, but he made his debut last Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox. He tossed 5 1/3 shutout innings, allowing four hits, no walks, and three strikeouts. He evaded trouble after having runners in scoring position during each of the first two innings, but his final 2 1/3 frames induced minimal stress.

Five total whiffs and only three on his splitter is certainly not what fans are used to seeing from Yesavage, who was a strikeout gold mine during last year’s postseason. However, no walks plus only two balls hit over 100 mph was more than encouraging, and Yesavage even admitted after the game he felt like he could’ve pitched further into the game.

Trey Yesavage’s 2Ks in the 4th

Yesavage faces the Twins for the first time in his major league career. Tristan Gray, who was dealt from Tampa Bay to Minnesota this past winter, is the only Twins hitter to have seen him before, going 0-for-2 with a strikeout and a fly out. However, he will tasked with finding an answer for Byron Buxton, who has homered in each of the first three games of this series.

Minnesota will be sending their ace, Joe Ryan, to the mound this afternoon. Like Yesavage, Ryan will have a hot hitter to deal with in Kazuma Okamoto, who is 4-for-12 in this series with three home runs and five RBIs.

Ryan is off to a solid start this season, posting a 3.76 ERA, 2.98 FIP, and 9.2 K/9 over his first seven starts. He faced the Blue Jays back on April 11th, allowing just two hits, two earned runs, one walk, and five strikeouts over seven innings of work. Those two earned runs came from the first two batters of the game; after walking George Springer, Daulton Varsho hit a two-run home run to give the Jays an early lead. From there, though, he allowed only a single and a hit batter through the 7th inning.

Unfortunately, after getting hit in the foot during yesterday’s game, Springer will be out of today’s lineup. Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters he was getting today off regardless, but the Jays are hoping this injury isn’t prolonged.

Yohendrick Piñango will take Springer’s spot at the top of the order with Okamoto hitting right after him. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gets a day off of his feet in the field, so Lenyn Sosa will cover first base and hit fifth. Andrés Giménez, who has seven hits with a home run in 26 career at-bats against Ryan, is back in the lineup after an off day yesterday.

Location: Target Field – Minneapolis, MN

First Pitch: 12:45 PM ET

Watch/Listen: Peacock, Sportsnet, Sportsnet One / Sportsnet 590 The Fan

Starting Pitchers

Toronto Blue Jays – Trey Yesavage: 1-0 record, 0.00 ERA, 5 1/3 IP, 3 SO, 0 BB

Minnesota Twins – Joe Ryan: 2-3 record, 3.76 ERA, 38 1/3 IP, 39 SO, 9 BB

Lineups:

Blue Jays:

Yohendrick Piñango – LF
Kazuma Okamoto – 3B
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – DH
Jesús Sánchez – RF
Lenyn Sosa – 1B
Daulton Varsho – CF
Ernie Clement – 2B
Andrés Giménez – SS
Tyler Heineman – C

Twins:

Byron Buxton – DH
Trevor Larnach – LF
Austin Martin – CF
Victor Caratini – C
Luke Keaschall – 2B
Kody Clemens – 1B
Royce Lewis – 3B
Matt Wallner – RF
Brooks Lee – SS

Starting Pitchers

Lineups:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply