Shota Imanaga blanks Twins over seven in blowout

It wasn’t the most dominant performance for Schlittler, but he did what he needed to keep the Jays off the board for 4 1/3 scoreless innings before an RBI single by Alejandro Kirk gave the Jays their first run of the night. Schlittler struggled at times with his command, walking three batters in this one while throwing 61.5 percent of his pitches for strikes. Schlittler has allowed one earned run in each of his last three starts and will look to pick up his 12th win in his next start on Thursday at home against the Astros.

Bohm came up with the Phillies down one, runners on the corners and none out in the 10th and delivered a 386-foot barrel to center. A quality center fielder would have caught it, which still would have resulted in a game-tying sac fly, but José Fermín, who was playing his third position of the night after Everson Pereira was lifted, came up a little short of making a sliding catch. All three of Bohm’s hits tonight left the bat at 103-105 mph. He’s 17-for-37 with seven extra-base hits and 11 RBI in his last nine games.

This is the first time all year Luzardo has given up three or four runs in a start; he’d allowed two or fewer 18 times and five of more seven times in his 25 outings. The first two runs tonight should have been unearned and might get changed later. With two outs in the first, Jordan Walker hit a grounder to third that Bryson Stott had to back up on, but he had plenty of time to make a throw and unleashed a bad one. It went as a single and a throwing error, but it should have been a straight error. Joshua Báez then followed with a homer. Luzardo is slated to make his next start Wednesday in Seattle.

Walker has now gone deep in three straight games, putting him up to 27 homers for the year. He’s moved into a tie with Sal Stewart for first place in the majors with 96 RBI. Incredibly, it looks like he’s going to exceed his total of 112 RBI from his first three seasons (279 games) combined.

Báez probably won’t be hit for often, but the Cardinals had Alec Burleson, who was getting a rare night off, replace him in the eighth. Báez homered off Jesús Luzardo in his first at-bat tonight to snap a 1-for-22 skid since he homered in his first three at-bats as a major leaguer. He has a fun .179/.273/.607 line to date.

Wetherholt hadn’t struck out more than twice in a game this year until tonight. His one ball in play was well struck — it was a 375-foot barrel to center — but it was handled easily by Justin Crawford. Wetherholt is hitting .181/.330/.236 this month, lowering his OPS from .741 to .714.

Contreras victimized Giants’ ace Logan Webb for the titanic shot over the Green Monster in the third inning, giving the Red Sox a 3-1 lead they would never relinquish. He also worked a pair of walks in the contest, finishing the night 1-for-2. On the season, the 34-year-old slugger is now slashing .285/.396/.541 to go along with 26 long balls and 78 RBI.

Abreu singled off of Logan Webb in the third inning and rode home on a three-run blast by Willson Contreras. He then capped off the Red Sox’ scoring with an RBI triple in the sixth inning. The 27-year-old outfielder is having a very productive season in the middle of the Red Sox’ lineup, slashing .262/.341/.474 with 22 homers and 68 RBI in 545 plate appearances.

Chapman made things a bit interesting as he issued a one-out walk to Buddy Kennedy to bring the tying run to the plate, but he rebounded to strike out Christian Koss and Jonah Cox to end it. He has now converted 28 of his first 30 save chances on the season while posting a minuscule 1.92 ERA and a 56/20 K/BB ratio across 42 2/3 innings of work.

Gray racked up six strikeouts on the evening while issuing a pair of free passes. The Giants scratched out a run against him in the third inning, then added three more in the fourth on back-to-back homers from Drew Gilbert and Rafael Devers. Gray buckled down after that though and kept them off the board the rest of his night. He got nine swings and misses on 97 pitches on the evening, registering a CSW of 26 percent. Now 16-3 on the year, he’ll carry a stellar 2.79 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and a 123/36 K/BB ratio (138 2/3 innings) into Wednesday’s battle against the Marlins in Miami.