Right from the start, on Wednesday, it was clear this was not going to be Eric Lauer’s night when Twins leadoff hitter Byron Buxton took the Blue Jays’ starter over the outfield wall for a homer.

It would, however, prove to be Toronto’s night as the sky over the Rogers Centre was lit up with homers, a wild evening of baseball that would end with the Jays prevailing in a 9-8 comeback slugfest, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth for their first lead of the game.

Seranaded to boos when he left Tuesday’s game, closer Jeff Hoffman flipped the script in this one, though he did give up a two-out double before recording the final out on a grounder for the save.

The teams combined for 24 hits, including eight homers, but no hit was bigger than Addison Barger’s two-run double in the eighth inning.

Heading into the night, Lauer had given up 10 home runs in 88 innings. By the time his outing had ended following 4.1 innings, the left-hander had surrendered four homers and 10 hits, both season-highs.

Both numbers could have been even worse had it not been Daulton Varsho’s defence in centre field.

Despite the poor outing by Lauer, who hadn’t pitched in 11 days, and the Jays’ penchant for throwing the ball away and allowing Minny to steal bases, some timely hitting by the home side and a fortuitous bounce kept the club within striking distance of the Twins.

Davis Schneider would go deep twice to up his homer total to 10, while Andres Gimenez also went yard. A clutch two-out, two-run single by Bo Bichette was also critical.

Through six innings, which took more than two hours to complete, the Twins were clinging to an 8-6 lead.
When Minny posted crooked numbers, the Jays responded.

Toronto was facing Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson, whom the Jays acquired in the package involving Marcus Stroman and would later be part of the deal with Minny for Jose Berrios. In 3.2 innings, Woods Richardson gave up three home runs.

The rubber match of a three-game series was far from clean, but everyone loves a home run and a high-scoring game.

Home sellouts have become the norm at the Rogers Centre and the flurry of runs did provide excitement.

When Ty France hit his first Toronto home run off one-time Blue Jay Genesis Cabrera to bring the Jays to within one run in the eighth inning, the fans erupted. And they did so again three batters later, after Alejandro Kirk singled and George Springer walked. That’s when Barger, in the throes of a lengthy batting slump, drilled a double high off the wall in right-centre to plate both base-runners.

The comeback win proved crucial in the AL East race as both the Red Sox and Yankees won earlier in the night. The Jays remain 4.0 and 4.5 games ahead of those teams, respectively.

fzicarelli@postmedia.com