TORONTO -- The downward spiral continues for the Twins.
And it's starting to accelerate.
Thursday night at Rogers Centre brought a 9-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, who completed their first-ever four-game series sweep over the Twins and dropped them back to .500 with two-thirds of the schedule complete.
Starter Kyle Gibson (8-9) was chased in the fifth inning after allowing eight earned runs, tying a career worst set in his second big-league start. Aside from homers by Trevor Plouffe and Aaron Hicks, the Twins could do little against longtime nemesis Mark Buehrle (12-5).
After entering the series with a one-game edge in the second wild-card race, the Twins head to Cleveland three games behind the Jays and in danger of falling even further back into the greedy American League pack.