Twins advance for 1st time in 21 years with 2-0 win to sweep Blue Jays behind Gray, Correa
Will meet Astros in next game
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Carlos Correa contributed an RBI single and a quick-twitch tag off a pickoff throw from Sonny Gray, and the Minnesota Twins swept the Toronto Blue Jays with a 2-0 win in Game 2 of their AL Wild Card Series on Wednesday.
The Twins advanced — for the first time in 21 years — to play the defending World Series champion Astros. Game 1 of the best-of-five AL Division Series is in Houston on Saturday.
It's familiar territory for Correa, who played for Houston for seven seasons before signing with Minnesota in free agency. Correa helped the Astros to three World Series appearances, winning it all in 2017, and he appears to be working on another memorable October.
The two-time All-Star, who went 3 for 7 with a hit-by-pitch in the Wild Card Series, ripped a bases-loaded single in a two-run fourth. Despite being outhit 15-12 by the Blue Jays over the two games, the patient Twins delivered precisely when they needed to at the plate and leaned back to watch their bullpen dominate with 7 1/3 scoreless innings in the series.
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Jhoan Duran, after an extended examination of his hand by Minnesota's medical staff following his warmup pitches, struck out the side in the ninth to trigger the celebration around the mound.
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.
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.
Gray threw a wild pitch after a single by George Springer and a two-out walk by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., putting runners on second and third. But with a full count on Bo Bichette, Gray whipped around and threw to the shortstop Correa, who grabbed the ball and grazed Guerrero's chest with his glove a split-second before Guerrero's hand hit the base.
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."
