Minnesota Twins vs Toronto Blue Jays Prediction: The Twins are the favorites

Tuesday's Major League Baseball Wild Card playoff game at Target Field features a matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Minnesota Twins. This season, Toronto Blue Jays finished with an overall record of 89-73, squeaking into the postseason with the last Wild Card berth available in the league. In terms of the Minnesota Twins, they finished with an overall record of 87-75, which was sufficient for them to win the American League Central by a nine-game margin. Let's take a look at the matchup ahead of us and make a pick and forecast.

The Minnesota Twins are riding a wave of momentum into the postseason, having won eight of their previous nine series before qualifying for the playoffs. The only black mark on their record was when they were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in a three-game series in the middle of September. However, Minnesota Twins also concluded the regular season with a loss, as they were defeated by Colorado Rockies by a score of 3-2 on the final day of play. In spite of the loss, Edouard Julien and Alex Kirilloff both contributed to the scoring of a run. This Tuesday, Pablo Lopez will get the ball to start for the Minnesota Twins in the starting role. Lopez made 32 starts this season and finished with a record of 11-8 with a 3.66 earned run average. Lopez has made just one start in the postseason throughout his career. In just 5.0 innings, he had a losing record with a 3.60 earned run average and seven strikeouts.

After being swept by the Texas Rangers in the middle of September, the Toronto Blue Jays found themselves in a precarious situation because they had fallen out of the positions for the Wild Card. Despite this, Toronto Blue Jays were able to pull themselves together and finish the season strong against the other teams in the American League East. On Sunday, the Toronto Blue Jays' season came to an end with a loss to the Rays by the score of 12-8. The game was highlighted by a solo home run hit by Brandon Belt. Kevin Gausman will almost certainly take the mound for the Blue Jays as their opening day starter on Tuesday. In 2023, Gausman made 31 starts and finished with a 12-9 record with a 3.16 earned run average. Gausman has appeared in seven playoff contests, including two starts, and has a record of 0-1 with an earned run average of 4.57.

The Minnesota Twins are probably the team I'll bet on without thinking twice. The recent difficulties that the Minnesota Twins had in the postseason will be a major talking point in the days leading up to this game's start. Since 2004, the Minnesota Twins have not been victorious in a single one of their postseason contests; during that time, they have been swept in five different series and also lost a Wild Card game. Having said that, Minnesota's pitching staff has the potential to be sneakily strong this year, despite the absence of major stars on the roster. This description applies to Lopez, despite the fact that he has had some difficulty as of late, as evidenced by the fact that he has allowed 11 earned runs over a total of 15.1 innings in his three most recent outings. If Lopez continues to struggle, Toronto Blue Jays might move quickly to replace him, although the Blue Jays haven't been very good with runners in scoring position so far this season. While the Minnesota Twins might have enough room to maneuver in order to pull off a victory, I expect there to be a lot of back-and-forth action in this one; and I think the Twins have what it takes to pull off the upset and win that playoff series.