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Twins sweep Blue Jays; advance to play Astros in ALDS

One day after snapping a 19-year winless drought, the Twins won their first series in 21 years.

MINNEAPOLIS — Clinging to a fresh two-run lead, Minnesota Twins starter Sonny Gray made perhaps the biggest throw of the game, and it wasn't even a pitch.

With two outs and runners on second and third, the veteran pitcher spun around and whipped the ball to shortstop Carlos Correa, who tagged a retreating Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at second base for the final out of the inning. The Twins bullpen took over from there, and didn't allow a run as the Twins finished off the Toronto Blue Jays with a 2-0 win Wednesday afternoon at Target Field to clinch the series.

One day after snapping a 19-year winless drought, the Twins won their first series in 21 years, coming in the form of a two-game sweep. Now, Minnesota will play the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in the American League Division Series, which begins Saturday.

Both of the Twins runs came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Royce Lewis scored on a Correa single. Max Kepler then scored on a double play to stretch the lead to 2-0 before Blue Jays reliever Yusei Kikuchi got out of the inning. The Twins' scoring came after Blue Jays manager John Schneider pulled starter José Berríos, who spent six seasons with the Twins, earlier in the inning despite throwing just 47 pitches.

Five relief pitchers combined to close out the final four innings, including closer Jhoan Durán who shut the door in the ninth inning.

The Blue Jays, who lost their seventh straight game in the playoffs since the AL Championship Series in 2016, left nine runners on base after stranding nine men in Game 1. Matt Chapman had a liner go just foul before grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the sixth against Caleb Thielbar.

Minnesota, after stopping a record 18-game postseason skid with the 3-1 win in Game 1, ended a nine-round losing streak that started with an ALCS defeat in 2002. The Atlanta Braves (2001-2019) and Chicago Cubs (1910-1998) share the all-time mark with 10 straight series lost.

“Everything is October. The mentality is different. I’m just giving everything out there, everything I have,” Correa said. “I’m going to keep doing that for the rest of the time that I’m here in Minnesota.”

The Blue Jays hit the ball hard again and made Gray work for his first career win in the playoffs, but the veteran right-hander finished five effective innings. He had three inning-ending strikeouts, before the slick move to finish the fifth when he was in the most trouble.

Correa said he noticed the Blue Jays were taking big leads and having trouble hearing with the crowd noise, so he told Gray he'd signal when to try a pickoff.

“I told him there were some free outs on the bases,” Correa said. “It felt like the right situation to do it.”

The sellout crowd of 38,518 was even more into the action than Game 1, standing in anticipation of every inning-ending out for the Twins and thriving off the bulldog energy that Gray brought to the mound. He finished third in the major leagues in ERA (2.79) during the regular season and logged 184 innings, his most since 2015.

Gray, who is eligible for free agency after the World Series, grew emotional in his pregame news conference on Tuesday when talking about the motivation that he gets from his two boys. His son Declan even issued an ultimatum to his dad before the series, “You better not lose.”

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Lewis, whose recovering hamstring strain has limited him to designated-hitter duty, hit a slow roller up the third base line in his first at-bat that prompted a sprint out of the box. The ball rolled foul, making his hustle moot. Then when he hit a grounder straight to shortstop for an inning-ending double play, he cautiously jogged at about half-speed to first.

LONG LIST

Minnesota’s postseason series losing streak started with the Angels in 2002 and included the Yankees six times, in the divisional rounds in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2019 and in a single wild-card game in 2017. The Twins also lost a division series to the A’s in 2006 and a wild-card series to the Astros in 2020. Their division tiebreaker win over the Tigers in 2009 was considered part of the regular season.

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