Five pivotal moments from Game 2 of the ALDS

It wasn’t a pretty game between the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees in the Bronx tonight for Twins fans, and Brandon will have the recap in a bit. Nonetheless, there were five moments that made the game what it was.

Randy Dobnak gets Giancarlo Stanton to ground into a double play to end the first inning.

Famous Uber driver (Did you know his rating is 4.99??!?!?) and Twins starter Dobnak allowed a double and a walk before getting Brett Gardner to fly out for the first out of the first. After allowing an Edwin Encarnacion RBI single, he was able to induce a double play from the bat of Stanton to keep the score 1-0.

Didi Gregorius hit a grand slam to right field in the bottom of the third inning.

Dobnak left the game with the bases loaded with Tyler Duffey getting the call, allowing an inherited runner to touch home plate the next two at-bats. After hitting Gary Sanchez to load the bases again, Gregorius stepped in and took a high 94-MPH four-seamer to right field and essentially put the game out of reach.

Mitch Garver hit an RBI single to right field in the top of the fourth.

After the implosion the prior half-inning, Nelson Cruz was able to draw a walk off of Masahiro Tanaka and Eddie Rosario followed up with a single to move Boomstick over to third. Garver came through with a single of his own and get Minnesota on the board to show some type of life.

Devin Smeltzer went 3.1 IP, 2H, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 inherited runner scored.

Not really a specific moment in the game, but Smeltzer came in to close out the disastrous third inning. Although he allowed his inherited runners to score, the rookie was able to go three more innings and keep the bullpen somewhat intact the rest of the game. Smeltzer got Giancarlo Stanton and Brett Gardner to strike out swinging while he froze Gleyber Torres on three pitches and got Encarnacion looking.

Strikeouts, strikeouts, strikeouts.

Bomba batters stuck out 14 times today - seven times at the hands of Tanaka and seven times against the Yankees bullpen. The offense didn’t show up today, and the big bats (Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario) combined for eight Ks while Luis Arraez uncharacteristically struck out twice today.