{"id":114150,"date":"2017-08-26T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-26T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=114150"},"modified":"2017-08-26T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-26T04:15:00","slug":"byron-buxton-drives-in-two-runs-to-help-lead-twins-past-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/26\/byron-buxton-drives-in-two-runs-to-help-lead-twins-past-blue-jays\/","title":{"rendered":"Byron Buxton drives in two runs to help lead Twins past Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Buxton<\/a>
Buxton dropped a perfectly executed squeeze bunt in the third inning to drive in the game’s first run. (Photo by Keith Allison on Flickr (Original version)UCinternational (Crop) – Originally posted to Flickr as “Byron Buxton”Cropped by UCinternational, CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO\u2014The Toronto Blue Jays knew they needed to be on high alert this weekend with speedster Byron Buxton and the Minnesota Twins in town.<\/p>\n

Toronto’s hunch proved to be right as Buxton had three hits, drove in two runs and was good defensively in Minnesota’s 6-1 win over the Jays on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might be the fastest guy in the league,\u201d Toronto manager John Gibbons said pre-game. \u201cHe’s really starting to put it together. He can do so many things with his legs, he can beat you with those legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buxton dropped a perfectly executed squeeze bunt in the third inning to drive in the game’s first run, advanced the runner on a bunt single in the fifth and drove in the game’s final run with an RBI single in the ninth.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old added a highlight-reel leaping grab in the eighth inning to take extra bases away from Rob Refsnyder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I got a good jump,\u201d Buxton said of the catch. \u201cI saw it well, saw it tailing away from me. I knew I had a good chance of getting there and making a play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jorge Polanco added a pair of RBIs for the Twins (66-62), who entered Friday a half game up on the Kansas City Royals for the second American League wild-card spot. Minnesota also avoided a third straight loss.<\/p>\n

Toronto (60-68) has now dropped six of seven after going 7-3 on a 10-game home stand earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Bartolo Colon (6-10) surrendered nine hits and walked one over 6 2\/3 innings. The 44-year-old right-hander has now won back-to-back starts and four of his last five outings.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutstanding start by Bartolo,\u201d said Twins manager Paul Molitor. \u201cBartolo spread out some hits along the way but he really made a lot of quality pitches and got us deep into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

J.A. Happ (6-10) went six innings allowing five earned runs on eight hits while striking out seven for his third consecutive loss.<\/p>\n

Leading 1-0 in the third, Polanco doubled to score a pair of runs, giving Minnesota an early 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just made a bad pitch on that double, change-up kind of middle of the plate,\u201d said Happ. \u201cThat’s the one I want back. Ended up being the difference in the game right there.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust didn’t execute it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Smoak made history with his solo home run in the bottom half of the third. The first baseman now holds the single-season franchise record for homers by a switch hitter (35) surpassing Jose Cruz Jr.<\/p>\n

Minnesota took a 4-1 lead in the fourth after Mitch Garver led off with a triple off the wall in right and scored on a sac-fly from Max Kepler.<\/p>\n

Toronto threatened in the fourth after a Kevin Pillar one-out single. Nori Aoki moved him over from first to third after a single of his own, but Colon got Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney to fly out to end the inning.<\/p>\n

The Twins manufactured another run in the fifth capitalizing on a leadoff double from Joe Mauer. After the Minnesota first basement advanced to third on a bunt single from Buxton, Polanco cashed in the run with sac-fly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014The Toronto Blue Jays knew they needed to be on high alert this weekend with speedster Byron Buxton and the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":114151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[21966,21967],"class_list":["post-114150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-byron-buxton","tag-toronto-blue","mauthors-the-canadian-press","mauthors-dhiren-mahiban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}