TORONTO -- Luis Arraez was the right man to carry out the Twins’ game plan.

Facing one of the American League’s most dominant pitchers on Sunday, Minnesota relied on a couple key elements to beat Kevin Gausman and earn an 8-6 win over the Blue Jays: Patience and a keen eye.

“All we did was come in and just have awesome at-bats from the beginning of the game,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli after the rubber match at Rogers Centre. “We had a good plan.”

Arraez’s plate approach was the embodiment of that plan. The Twins were smart with their swings, laying off the splitter and avoiding chasing anything out of the strike zone.

It was certainly an “easier said than done” situation, but that’s what Arraez has done all year. The Twins’ DH reached base five times on Sunday, logging four hits, a walk and two runs scored to take the league lead in batting average (.358) and maintain his spot atop the on-base percentage (.447) leaderboard.

“I just try to do my best [out] there,” Arraez said of his offensive success. “I just want to hit every day, every time I go out there. I try to do my job and I never change my approach.”

Now in his fourth Major League season, Arraez has shown that this level of consistency is his baseline.

The 25-year-old sports a career batting average of .320 along with a .386 OBP. He reached base safely in all three of the games against Toronto and now has a season average of .358 -- slightly better than White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson’s .356 mark.

“He does a lot to get the pitch that he wants to hit,” said Baldelli. “That’s what he does really well, and it’s like that basically every at-bat he takes. It’s not that easy to do that, to have that type of consistent, refined, good approach. Every player that’s ever played baseball struggles with that at times. And he does that so well every day when he shows up.

“Today was a vintage Luis game.”

Arraez’s matchup against Gausman was always going to be an intriguing one. The Blue Jays’ starter has piled up strikeouts and ranks in the 100th percentile for chase rate this year, relying on his trusted splitter to put hitters away. Arraez, on the other hand, has walked more than he’s struck out and doesn’t tend to swing at many pitches out of the zone.

This time, the hitter came out on top, earning two key knocks off Gausman -- who was pulled before the end of the fourth inning -- to help ignite the Twins’ offense in a game in which they racked up a season-high 16 hits but saw things almost get messy in the end.

Aided by home runs from Gary Sánchez and Trevor Larnach, the Twins entered the bottom of the ninth leading 8-3. The Blue Jays rallied for three runs and had runners at the corners before Jovani Moran finally got Bo Bichette -- who represented the game-winning run -- to ground to third for the final out of the game.

“Ultimately, there’s no blowout games when you’re facing offenses like the ones we’re facing right now,” said Baldelli. “Even when your bullpen is throwing the ball good, none of that matters. You just have to tack on as many runs as you possibly can.”

It was a top-to-bottom effort that has become characteristic of these Twins. Starter Devin Smeltzer pitched four innings with two solo home runs allowed before handing things over to Minnesota’s bullpen, which largely managed to keep the Blue Jays at bay.

Arraez’s big day was simply the spark plug for the whole operation.

“It’s like he’s on fire all the time, and that’s not normal,” said Baldelli. “He doesn’t get greedy. I think his mindset is different than most guys, where he goes out there knowing what he’s trying to do and no matter how many times he does it, he still gets the opportunity to get those types of swings off.”

Part of that consistency comes from keeping things simple. Just like with his plate approach, Arraez has maintained a steady pregame routine, one that doesn’t involve a whole lot of cage work or batting-practice swings.

Though he only has one home run in the year, Arraez sports an .854 OPS this year, in large part due to his ability to hit line drives all over the field whenever he finally sees a pitch he likes.

“He’s difficult to pitch to,” said Baldelli.

That’s been the case all year -- even if the pitcher in question is a potential Cy Young contender.