Wallner, Castro, Julien step up in Twins win over Blue Jays
Lesser-known players carried the Minnesota Twins to a 9-7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon.
Matt Wallner went 4-for-4 with a homer, Willi Castro slugged a pair of homers and had three hits, and Edouard Julien homered and doubled twice to fuel the 14-hit, nine-run attack.
And all of it was needed because struggling Twins reliever Jorge Lopez allowed three runs in the ninth inning before Brock Stewart replaced him and stranded the tying run on first base to end the game.
The game was tied 4-4 before Castro and Wallner hit back-to-back homers in the fifth to put the Twins up 7-4. Castro homered again in the seventh to make it 8-4 and then Julien went deep in the eighth for a 9-4 cushion.
LET'S GOOO WILLI CASTRO!! 💣@Twins || #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/Ib8A4sUJew
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) May 27, 2023
Matt Wallner is in his bag 👜#MNTwins x #NextLevel pic.twitter.com/nt5p3Vs5NA
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) May 27, 2023
Lopez entered the game to the start and the ninth and allowed a single and a two-run homer before hitting a batter and giving up another single. The right-hander has had three consecutive rough appearances that have resulted in his ERA rising from 1.31 to 3.68.
Carlos Correa, dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, did not play. Manager Rocco Baldelli said he hopes Correa is able to play Sunday.
Up next: Twins vs. Blue Jays, Sunday at 1:10 p.m. Bailey Ober will start for the Twins against former Minnesota right-hander Jose Berrios.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.