Royce Lewis hit home runs in each of his first two at-bats to carry the Minnesota Twins to a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of their AL Wild Card Series. That ended Minnesota’s record 18-game postseason losing streak. Lewis hit a two-run shot off Kevin Gausman to left field in the first inning. He went deep to right leading off the third and became the third player in history to homer in each of his first two career postseason plate appearances. The Twins last won a game in the playoffs on Oct. 5, 2004.
Jordan Montgomery scattered six hits over seven innings, helping the Texas Rangers beat the sloppy Tampa Bay Rays 4-0 in their AL Wild Card Series opener. Corey Seager and Josh Jung drove in runs and the Rangers benefitted from four errors by the Rays, who also fizzled offensively before a crowd of just 19,704. Texas moved within a victory of a AL Division Series matchup against Baltimore. Tampa Bay, lost its sixth straight postseason game since winning its 2021 Division Series opener against Boston. The Rays have one run in their last three playoff defeats, hitting .133.