Wild-Card Notebook: Berrios knows the Twins; Jays know they must turn the page

MINNEAPOLIS — Jose Berríos made three post-season starts during his 5½ seasons with the Minnesota Twins and after watching his former team end its 18-game playoff losing streak, he’s tasked with extending the wild-card series for his current club, the Toronto Blue Jays.

“Honestly, it’s an honour having this opportunity, being in the ballpark where I grew up as a major-league baseball player and also a minor-league player in this organization. So it’s going to be fun,” the 29-year-old right-hander said before his team’s 3-1, Game 1 loss. “It’s going to be special also pitching against old friends, old teammates … Going to enjoy it because fans are going to enjoy it. We like that. We take that like motivation and inspire ourselves to be better out there.”

Watch Blue Jays vs. Twins in wild-card round on Sportsnet

The Toronto Blue Jays head to Minnesota to face the Twins in the best-of-three wild-card round. Watch every game on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ beginning Oct. 3.

.acf-block-preview .br-snippet {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 1fr;
gap: 20px;
width: 100%;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 16px;
border: 1px solid #CECECE;
background-color: #FFF;
border-radius: 4px;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info a {
text-decoration: none;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-title {
color: #343434;
font-family: ‘roboto’;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: 600;
line-height: 22px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
top: -3px;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-body {
color: #343434;
font-family: ‘urw-din’;
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 20px;
margin-bottom: 12px;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-link-title {
display: inline-block;
font-family: ‘urw-din’;
font-size: 16px;
list-style-type: none;
width: auto;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-link-title:not(:last-child):after {
content: ‘ | ‘;
color: #343434;
}

The Blue Jays will, obviously, need to be better to earn themselves a decisive Game 3 on Thursday. Game 1 starter Kevin Gausman struggled to locate his fastball early against the Twins and was twice burned by fastballs to Royce Lewis, who sent them both over the wall.

Berríos, who rebounded well from a trying 2022 by posting a 3.65 ERA in 189.2 innings across 32 starts this year, will need to be spot on with his two-seamer to leverage his breaking ball and, against lefties, changeup, to keep the Twins at bay.

A raucous crowd that taunted Gausman may be another factor for Berríos to deal with, although it will be interesting to see if his history with the Twins merits some different treatment.

Either way, he’ll be leaning on his outings in the 2017 wild card (three innings, three runs), 2019 division series (four innings, three runs, one earned) and 2020 wild card (five innings, one run) to keep his emotions in check and mindset where it needs to be.

“The baseball is the same, regular season, post-season. The only difference is, in the post-season the games start getting quicker, faster,” he explained. “But you start learning how to calm down the game, like, slow down every pitch, every play, every inning, to help yourself to do (well) out there.”

.acf-block-preview .br-video-thumbnail::before {
content: “”;
position: absolute;
top: 45%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-moz-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-ms-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-o-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-webkit-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
width: 20px;
height: 0px;
border-top: 14px solid transparent;
border-left: 22px solid #fff;
border-bottom: 14px solid transparent;
margin-left: 3px;
}

TURNING THE PAGE: Short memories can be a good thing in baseball and especially in the post-season, where allowing missed opportunities from one game to linger into the next is a recipe for disaster.

Hence, veteran Blue Jays slugger Brandon Belt pointed to the Twins getting “good pitching, defence and the homers,” in their Game 1 win and described it as “a great playoff trifecta. Hopefully we can come out here (Wednesday) and do the same thing.”

“You’ve just got to move forward,” he added later. “Our back’s against the wall, so we’ve got to show up and play our best baseball of the year. It’s definitely not impossible. I’ve played a lot of elimination games and we’ve come through in a lot of them. We have put this game behind us and move on.”

This current group has lost its last two elimination games: in 2020 against the Tampa Bay Rays and last year against the Seattle Mariners. Among the things they can point to is that they had more hard-hit balls than the Twins on Tuesday, 12-9, but ended up with less to show for it.

“We didn’t really have a whole lot go our way,” said centre-fielder Kevin Kiermaier, who had two of the Blue Jays’ six hits, including an RBI single. “But as a team, you create your own luck. Hopefully we do a better job (Wednesday).”

Added right-fielder George Springer: “Everyone understands that our back is up against the wall. But I think we actually played a good game. We hit the ball well. Obviously it doesn’t show that. But we hit the ball (well), pitched and it’s on to (Wednesday).”

TO MINNY VIA ALBERTA: Minnesota Twins lefty Kody Funderburk’s first times living away from home came during the two summers he played in the Western Major Baseball League (now known as the Western Canadian Baseball League). Life in Alberta left an impression on the native of Mesa, Ariz.

“It was a culture change with the hockey and all the lingo that they have. They called everyone beauties up there,” he said before Game 1, after being included on the Twins’ wild-card roster.

“I enjoyed both my summers up there. They were fun.”

They were also impactful on his baseball development.

At the time he was playing for Mesa Community College and assistant coach Dave Robb, who was also coaching the Okotoks Dawgs in the summer collegiate loop, suggested Funderburk head north.

A rule preventing junior college players from suiting up in a summer loop with their school coaches meant Funderburk spent 2016 playing with the Edmonton Prospects. The next year, when Funderburk transferred to Dallas Baptist University, he joined Robb in Okotoks, posting a 1.043 OPS with 15 homers in 44 games at first base, while throwing nine shutout innings on the mound.

“It was my first experience playing in front of thousands of people,” said Funderburk. “Some nights in Okotoks, they would get 3,000 to 5,000, so it’s my first time playing in front of big crowds, a lot of travel, you go over to Saskatchewan, 12-, 14-hour bus rides. Kind of like minor-league life where you’re bouncing around every three or four days, different hotels, different cities. It got me ready for that.”

The Twins drafted him in the 15^th round out of Dallas Baptist in 2018, ending his two-way days and he debuted this past Aug. 28, with three strikeouts in two shutout innings against Cleveland. In all, he allowed just one run in 12 innings over 11 outings with 19 strikeouts to earn a spot on the Twins’ wild-card roster.

More from Sportsnet

Blue Jays have no margin for error after Game 1 loss to Twins

Blue Jays’ Bichette defends decision to try to score on out at the plate

.acf-block-preview .br-related-links-wrapper {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr);
gap: 20px;
}

.acf-block-preview .br-related-links-wrapper a {
pointer-events: none;
cursor: default;
text-decoration: none;
color: black;
}