Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Simeon Woods-Richardson (24) reacts on the mounr during the fourth inning baseball game action against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Photo/Chris Young, The Canadian Press via AP)

Bobby Nightengale | Minnesota Star Tribune

TORONTO – After all the good vibes, momentum and positivity surrounding the Twins following their four-game sweep against Detroit, the defending American League champions hit them with a gut punch.

Or maybe it was a pregame meal at Subway.

Twins starting pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson was sick after eating a pregame sandwich, though he tried to pitch through it.

Woods Richardson lasted only four innings, and the Twins wasted a four-run lead in their 10-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, April 10, at Rogers Centre, which ended their four-game winning streak.

The Blue Jays scored a run in each of their final five innings.

Woods Richardson “was throwing up pregame,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I mean, after the third, he wasn’t in a great spot. We were hoping to get more out of him, and it just looked like he ran out of gas.”

Woods Richardson told the coaching staff he could pitch after chucking up his pregame meal. The Twins already had a shorthanded bullpen, and they were down a reliever because Cody Laweryson is headed to the 15-day injured list.

“I think it’ll be the last day he eats Subway for a long time,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said.

The fourth inning snowballed on Woods Richardson and the Twins defense. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opened with a line-drive double that sailed over a leaping and tumbling Byron Buxton in center field. Jesús Sánchez rocketed the next pitch, a 91-mph fastball, into the outfield for an RBI double.

Two batters later, Davis Schneider lined a ball that spun around right fielder Matt Wallner, dropping for an RBI double on a bad defensive play.

Woods Richardson was one strike from pitching out of the inning, escaping with a two-run lead, when Andrés Giménez hit a fastball in a 0-2 count, and the ball bounced through the left side of the infield for an RBI single. Blue Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela followed with a two-run homer to right field, connecting on a splitter that didn’t split for the first home run of his major league career.

Just like that, in a span of seven batters, the Twins’ four-run lead was gone, and the announced crowd of 40,721 roared with approval.

The fourth inning didn’t come to an end until after George Springer reached on a Tristan Gray throwing error, and Springer was later thrown out attempting to steal third.

“We talked to Sim and he felt like he was in a pretty good spot,” Shelton said. “It just got worse as the game went on.”

Woods Richardson yielded six hits and five runs across four innings. In the first three innings, only two baserunners reached against him. In the fourth inning, he gave up five hits (four with exit velocities exceeding 106 mph) and five runs before he recorded two outs.

“I still have to make pitches, man, no matter how you’re feeling,” Woods Richardson said. “You’re going to feel like [garbage] some days. You’re going to feel good some days. You’re going to feel really [bad] when your body just hurts.

“Unfortunately, I just had some bad food. I still have to go make pitches.”

The Blue Jays, who had lost seven of their past nine games, used the five-run inning to wake up their offense.

Daulton Varsho, in the fifth inning, greeted Twins lefthander Anthony Banda with a solo homer on Banda’s third pitch. Banda left a sinker over the heart of the plate, and Varsho hit it 405 feet for the Wisconsin native’s 100th career home run.

Banda gave up RBI doubles to Ernie Clement and Springer in the sixth inning. The veteran lefty has given up seven hits and seven runs over his past two relief appearances.

It was Banda’s first time pitching at Rogers Centre since Game 1 of the World Series when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Banda gave up a grand slam to Addison Barger and a two-run homer to Alejandro Kirk in a loss.

Twins lefty Taylor Rogers, playing against his twin brother Tyler’s team, conceded three hits in the seventh inning, including an RBI single to Schneider. Guerrero hit an RBI double off Justin Topa in the eighth.

The Twins gave Woods Richardson a three-run lead before he took the mound. Ryan Jeffers drove a first-pitch cutter from Blue Jays lefthander Patrick Corbin into the left field seats for a three-run homer.

It was Jeffers’ first home run of the season.

The Twins have homered in their past 24 games at Rogers Centre (Aug. 26, 2017-present), the longest streak by any team in the ballpark’s history, including the Blue Jays, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

Brooks Lee, one day after he hit a game-winning single, drilled a full-count cutter over the left field wall for a leadoff homer to begin the fourth inning. It was Lee’s first homer of the year, and his first homer in a road game since Aug. 27, 2025, when he hit a solo homer in, you might have guessed it, Toronto.