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Down 8-6 into the eighth, the Jays got a home run from Ty France, his first with the team, off Genesis Cabrera. After a pinch-single by Alejandro Kirk and a walk to George Springer,听Addison Barger聽followed with a 110.3-m.p.h. rocket off the right-field wall for what turned out to be the game-winning double. It was only Barger’s third hit in his last 31 at-bats.

Fastballs

The pen is mightier

Four Jays relievers combined to shut out the Twins for 4 1/3, allowing just two hits and giving the bats a chance to come back.

Tommy Nance gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced, taking over for Eric Lauer with two out in the fifth, then he, Justin Bruihl, Seranthony Dominguez and Jeff Hoffman combined to not allow another hit until Brooks Lee’s two-out double off Hoffman in the ninth. Hoffman got the next hitter to ground out to secure his 29th save.

It could have been worse

The four home runs allowed by Lauer were just one off the club record, but if not for a couple of great catches by Daulton Varsho, the left-hander might have allowed half a dozen.

Varsho made a pair or outstanding leaping grabs at the centre-field wall, one against Kody Clemens in the second and another to rob Brooks Lee in the third.

Little League homer

While seven balls left the yard in the game, Twins designated hitter Edouard Julien circled the bases in the fourth inning thanks to a Jays’ error.

The Quebec City native hit a gapper to left-centre and Bo Bichette’s throw home to try to erase Austin Martin was a hair late. As Martin slid home, catcher Tyler Heineman fired to third in an attempt to get Julien, who was advancing on the throw, but threw the ball away, allowing Julien to trot home.

Mailbag

BrotherExpo found me @wilnerness on Bluesky and, anticipating the Jays’ upcoming weekend series with MLB-best Milwaukee, asked聽if this is the Jays’聽“biggest series ever with the Brewers?”

It is to laugh, sir, that an end-of-August three-game series into which the Jays will go with at least a 3 1/2-game lead would be the biggest these two teams have played when there’s so much rich history between the clubs.

The biggest series, I’d say, was in the final week of the 1987 season. The Jays came in with a 2 1/2-game lead in the AL East and six games to play and got swept as part of their gut-wrenching season-ending seven-game losing streak. Ernie Whitt broke a rib in the middle game when he collided with the Brewers’ Paul Molitor while sliding into second base.

There are good memories, too. The Jays clinched the division title in 1993 with a 2-0 win in Milwaukee. And when the Jays opened up SkyDome in June 1989, the Brewers were the visitors.