The Minnesota Twins needed some more momentum after a walk-off win against the Oakland Athletics two nights ago followed by a back-and-forth win against the New York Yankees last night. But, as we all know, the Twins history against the Yankees is not so bright. A series clinch would be nice, but staring at a rubber match tomorrow would be okay as well. Five hours later...
Well, apparently Twins starter Kyle Gibson wanted to make it a rubber match tomorrow. He started the game by issuing a walk to former-Twin Aaron Hicks. After a strikeout of the honorable Aaron Judge, Twins-hater Edwin Encarnacion laced a double to right field, moving Hicks to third. Two batters later, Didi Gregorius hit a line drive to center field, plating two runs and giving the Yanks a 2-0 lead before the home team could even touch the bats.
After leading the bases loaded in the top of the third, the Yankees would tack on three more in the fifth inning off of Gibson. With Judge and Encarnacion on base with a single each, Gregorius would strike again, this time a three-run shot to right field, giving the Yankees a total of five runs at that point in the game Gibson would not see the sixth: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, HR.
Between those two innings that the Yankees scored, the Bomba Squad showed up. At first, it was not via the long-ball, but in the second inning, Luis Arraez was able to bring in Eddie Rosario on a single. After an Ehire Adrianza walk, the Twins could not score more, and ate some LOBster.
The home third saw the bombs start to fall. Jorge Polanco and Nelson Cruz each went deep against Yankees starter Domingo German, giving the Twins the lead 3-2. Minnesota then went loose in the bottom of the fourth. An Adrianza double was followed up with a Jason Castro single, scoring Adrianza. Polanco would single, Cruz was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and then Eddie Rosario would ground out to score Castro. Miguel Sano then stepped into the box and then launched a homer into the second deck of the Home Run Porch in left field to make it an 8-2 game. Aaron Boone had seen enough so much that he was at the mound to pull Germán before Sanó even touched home plate. A couple more singles off of former-Twin David Hale would be for naught, but the Twins had batted around and did a buttload of damage, putting up a five-spot.
With the score 8-5 in the bottom of the fifth, Polanco tacked on another run for the home squad as he doubled to bring in Castro; 9-6 in favor of the Twins.
The Evil Empire retreated for a couple innings as Cody Stashak made his major-league debut for Minnesota: 2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 K. Blake Parker came in for the eight and made a mess of things, leading with a walk to Gleyber Torres. Gio Urshela would double, followed up by a double from Mike Tauchman, bringing in Torres. Hicks would strike out, but Judge would come in and hit a double - about 3 inches short of a home run - to center field, scoring both Urshela and Tauchman.
Rocco Baldelli had seen enough and pulled Parker in favor of Tyler Duffey. He’d strike out Encarnacion and walk Luke Voit on a very, very bad ball-four call. Duffey would be relieved by Ryne Harper, and new Twin-killer Gregorius would double to center field, plating two and giving the Yankees the lead, 10-9. Baldelli got tossed by young home plate ump Ramon De Jesus, probably for telling De Jesus that the inning should have ended before New York took the lead. The inning ended on a ground-out and the Yankees had put up a five-spot of their own.
Listening to the radio, it was sounded pretty much quiet at Target Field. I was pretty deflated. I could tell the fans were deflated. I had written about 85% of this recap as if the Twins won. Did I jinx it? Would the Twins go 0-62 the rest of the season? Rosario would hit a single off of the glove of Urshela. Then a ball was hit 457 feet - in the seats above the bullpens - by power-hitter Miguel Sano. Everyone went wild. I wrote “AHHHH” with 3,000 Hs in the game thread. Curtain call for Sano. Twins lead 11-10.
Taylor Rogers came in for the ninth and issued a walk to Tachman. He just needed one strike to put away the game. ONE STRIKE. Hicks then hit a homer to left field and everyone went silent again. My “AHHHH” was replaced with “NOOOO” and I had to pour myself a whiskey at this point. High West Double Rye, in case you were wondering. 12-11 Yankees.
Aroldis Chapman was summoned to close the door on the Twins. He issued back-to-back-to-back walks to Adrianza, pinch-hitter Mitch Garver, and Kepler. Polanco would hit a sacrific fly, allowing Adrianza to score and tie the game at 12 (!) runs each. Cruz would fly out for the second out while Rosario looped out to shallow left to end the inning and take it to extras.
Kohl Stewart was assigned to the 10th inning for the Twins after a quick first out, he issued a single to Gregorius (of course), a single to Romine, and an RBI single to Torres. Before the inning ended, a wild pitch brought in another run to give the Yankees a 14-12 lead.
Former Rockies pitcher Adam Ottavino came in to close the door on the Twins. It was pretty rough with Sanó striking out, and then back-to-back walks to Marwin Gonzalez and Luis Arraez; Adrianza grounded into a force-out, leaving runners at first and third with two outs. Did you ask for more walks from top-tier bullpen arms? You got it! Ottavino walked Garver, loading the bases for Kepler. Boone walked to the mound, probably uttering some superlatives, and Chad Green came in to maybe finish the game. Kepler hit a line-drive to left center field...
...where Hicks was there to dive and make the catch and end the game.
These teams meet one final time this regular season to finish out the homestand tomorrow at 7:10p Central. J.A. Happ goes for the Yankees while Jake Odorizzi will start for the Twins in the rubber game of this series.
Yankees 14, Twins 12 (10 inn.)
W: Chapman (3-2) ??????????????????????????????
L: Stewart (2-2)
S: Green (1)
NOTES
- The Twins set a new franchise record for players with 15 or more home runs in a season: Max Kepler (25), Eddie Rosario (21), Nelson Cruz (21), Mitch Garver (19), C.J. Cron (18), Miguel Sano (16), Jonathan Schoop (15), Jorge Polanco (15).
- Miguel Sano hit his 100th career homer on his second bomb tonight.
- In addition to Baldelli, hitting coach James Rowson was ejected for arguing balls and strikes.
STUDS
- Miguel Sano: 2-6, 2 R, 5 RBI, K, 2 HR
- Jorge Polanco: 3-5, 2 R, 3 RBI, K, HR, SF
- Nelson Cruz: 1-5, 2 R, RBI, HR
- Cody Stashek: 2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 K
duds
- Blake Parker: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, BB, K
- Tyler Duffey: 0.1 IP, ER, BB, K
- Taylor Rogers: 1.0 IP, H, 2 ER, BB, BS
- Kohl Stewart: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, L
- Kyle Gibson, 5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, not enough to save the bullpen
COMMENT OF THE GAME THREAD
A tie between good news from mikecardii and a guess-but-not-guess from gintzer on a bomba call.
THOSE PLEADING FOR BULLPEN HELP
# | Commenter | # Comments |
---|---|---|
1 | Joefishy | 150 |
2 | Uncle Lincoln | 131 |
3 | doomsdayshark | 80 |
4 | Mrmumph | 75 |
5 | CG19 | 69 |
6 | Asthix | 47 |
7 | Imakesandwichesforaliving | 39 |
8 | oofda22 | 35 |
9 | Lars in SLP | 31 |
10 | TJ Gorsegner | 24 |
11 | SooFoo Fan | 19 |
12 | Joel Hernandez | 17 |
13 | DBTwinsfan | 17 |
14 | StewartRL | 13 |
15 | Lestermilk | 12 |
16 | Gunnarthor | 11 |
17 | 2wins87 | 10 |
18 | TeamCrazyMatt | 9 |
19 | Petron31 | 9 |
20 | mefoolonhill | 8 |
21 | mikecardii | 5 |
22 | gintzer | 5 |
23 | Anoka Area Commenter Bot | 5 |
24 | montanatwinsfan | 4 |
25 | CarlJ47 | 4 |
26 | Titus Decker | 3 |
27 | cpappa | 3 |
28 | twinssdfan | 2 |
29 | Sheldon | 2 |
30 | twinports-norse | 2 |
31 | mnsportswopwopwah | 2 |
32 | jchcios | 2 |
33 | EVR92 | 1 |
34 | TheSnarkyViking | 1 |
35 | gonzobob | 1 |
36 | Theo77 | 1 |
37 | Klawitter | 1 |
38 | a null entry | 1 |
39 | Dave T | 1 |
40 | TawnyFroggy | 1 |
41 | Devereaux | 1 |
42 | AKducks | 1 |
43 | farm_guy | 1 |
Bless you all for sticking it through this game. Good night!