Monday, April 15, 2019

#17 - Toronto Blue Jays (5-11) at Minnesota Twins (8-4)



Monday, April 15, 2019 | 7:40 pm ET
Target Field | Minneapolis, MN

Matt Shoemaker (3-0, 0.92, 0.71) vs. Martin Perez (1-0, 7.56, 2.40)


PREAMBLE:

Hidey-ho, folks... welcome to yet another episode of "As We Wait For Vlad" while watching the Blue Jays get pounded into the dirt.

This time, the Jays are in Minnesota to take on the Twins after losing 2 of 3 to the first-place Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend.  Let's see if changing time zones help the Jays forget the throwing yips they displayed in the past two games.  This is the first game of a 7-game road trip that also goes through Oakland.

Matt Shoemaker takes his sterling 3-0, 0.92 record to the mound, with Martin Perez stepping up for the Twins.


NOTES:

Hopefully Charlie Montoyo takes note and finds a way to fire up the hitters as Martin Perez was quoted saying to MLB.com: "I think (Monday's) going to be a big day for me.  I'm going to get the win ... I'm going long."  Yeah, you want your SP to be confident, but that's pretty big talk to make public, especially after he's been hit pretty good so far this season. Sic 'im, boys.

Of course, the Jays have been making most pitchers look like the reincarnation of Christy Mathewson, so there's that...

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has been sent down to Buffalo after a couple of brutal throws on Saturday and Sunday -- as Montoyo said, it's all up there in the head.  It'd be good for Gurriel to clear the cobwebs and just focus on playing baseball for a while out of the limelight (that's what Vlad is for, to soak up the attention).  In his place, Eric Sogard has been called up.  To make room for Sogard on the 40-man, Ryan Borucki has been moved to the 60-day IL (see you in June, Ryan).

It's Jackie Robinson Day: 



Take a look at this ERA leaderboard ... some of it helped, of course, by yesterday's throwing errors, but the pitchers might start thinking of suing for non-support.


Happy Birthday, Danny Jansen.


LINEUPS:


This is your "just win, you assholes" game threat.  No Gurriel or Stroman to bean spectators behind 1st base with balls gone awry, so you guys got no excuses.  Just win.