Lukes makes impression in Blue Jays' bittersweet return to Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — Nathan Lukes’ Friday began with him arriving at the team hotel only to discover that his room was not ready yet. It ended with the Toronto Blue Jays left fielder making two spectacular catches in his return to the big leagues.

Lukes was recalled from triple-A on Friday afternoon when the Blue Jays optioned outfielder Steward Berroa to Buffalo. And though his club dropped a 2-0 game to the Minnesota Twins at Target Field, it was no doubt a memorable evening for Lukes, whose grind of a season has now culminated in him playing in his first major league contest since September of last year.

“Waking up early, flying, got to the hotel, didn’t have a room ready, pretty much came straight to the field,” Lukes said, offering a summation.

All of which made his performance even more impressive. In the bottom of the second inning, Lukes made an impressive jumping catch at the warning track on a Matt Wallner fly ball that seemed to keep travelling.

In the fifth frame, though, he managed to top that.

Jose Miranda doubled off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman to open the inning and was immediately cashed in by Carlos Santana’s single to right field. That opened the scoring and the home side continued to apply pressure by putting runners on second and third for Willi Castro, who sent a drive to deep left field.

Lukes gave chase, covering a significant amount of ground before leaping and crashing into the wall for a highlight-reel catch. The runner at third tagged up and scored, but Lukes’ grab definitively saved a run.

It also endeared him to his teammates.

“Shows up, this is his first day here and, really, made two great plays,” Gausman said. “That's the type of player he is. That's the game that he brings — exceptional defender. It's always nice when you can bring a guy up and he can make a play like that.”

The 30-year-old Lukes was a career minor-leaguer before breaking camp with the Blue Jays to open the 2023 campaign. By no means is he considered a difference-making prospect within the organization, however, his strong campaign this year in Buffalo shouldn’t be discounted.

Lukes was tearing the cover off the ball before suffering an injury in June to his left thumb that required surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament. That cost him two months but when the Sacramento, Calif., native returned in August, he continued to rake.

Overall, he’s hit .335/.403/.463 in 57 minor-league games this season after slashing .366/.423/.530 across 48 triple-A games in 2023.

Lukes was with the Bisons in Durham, N.C., on Thursday night when manager Casey Candaele delivered the news that the Blue Jays were recalling him.

“I was happy because this year has been a physical grind as well as a mental grind,” said Lukes. “It was definitely a lot of learning for me on the mental side.”

After undergoing surgery, Lukes headed to the Blue Jays player development facility in Dunedin, Fla., where he underwent a rehab and recovery that seemed monotonous at times. His wife, Taylor, and their young daughter, Remi, accompanied Lukes in Florida, helping to ease his mind during what he described as a period that reshaped his perspective.

“It’s just the mentality of not taking playing for granted,” said Lukes. “[I realized] it could end at any moment, whether it's, ‘I'm done playing,’ or injury. I just had a lot of time to reflect.”

Lukes doesn’t have to worry about an impending end for the time being. Going forward in September, the left-handed hitter figures to "get a chance to play, especially against righties, and hopefully finish the year on a good note," said Blue Jays manager John Schneider.

He’s among the many new players who weren’t around last October when the Blue Jays last visited Target Field. The return here carries significance, of course, because it’s a vivid reminder of when the Twins captured the American League Wild Card series with a two-game sweep that left the Blue Jays reeling.

And if fate needed to hammer the point home, how about the fact that Friday night’s pitching matchup of Gausman versus Pablo Lopez represented a rematch from Game 1 of that Wild Card set?

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, the result was the same, however, Gausman did fare better than he did during that post-season matchup. The Twins had owned the right-hander over the past two seasons, tagging him for 13 earned runs over 13 innings across three starts — and that's not including the three runs he surrendered to them over four innings in Game One of the Wild Card series. 

Those results led to Gausman openly wondering if the Twins had something on him and knew what pitches were coming. He somewhat rectified that on Friday, though, allowing just two runs on four hits over 5.2 innings, walking four and striking out four.

“I think there's certain tendencies that he has that they're probably on,” said Schneider. “Kevin’s said it, we've said it, and I think he made some good adjustments and he located his fastball down in the zone today.”

For his part, the right-hander admits he didn’t drastically alter his game-planning ahead of the matchup with the Twins.

“I feel like I prepare really well against everybody,” said Gausman. “I'm not going to do anything more just because I'm facing the Twins. I've tried that — that doesn't work. I think it's just the players they have, to be honest. Their lefties, especially, are kind of more contact, high-on-base guys, not big strikeout numbers. So, those guys kind of play into that, whereas the majority of lefties that I face, I feel pretty good about. These guys kind of give me a little bit of a hard time.”

Gausman was once again bested by Lopez, who turned in a dominant performance. The Twins right-hander kept the Blue Jays off balance all night, mixing a fastball that topped out at 97.3 m.p.h. with a deceiving changeup that produced plenty of soft contact. Lopez allowed six hits over 7.2 scoreless frames, striking out three and issuing no walks.

“Pablo has shown that when he's on and he's facing us, he can go deep in the game and throw up some zeroes,” said Gausman. “When he's on, he's one of the best in the game and he was definitely on tonight.”

Lukes collected one of those hits, lifting a single to centre field off the Twins right-hander in the eighth inning. It only added to what was a special day.

“Being able to come back up here never really gets old,” said Lukes. “I just want to stay relaxed and I want to prove to them I belong here.”