Yankees Show Improvement as They Take Three Out of Four From Minnesota
The New York Yankees faced off against the Minnesota Twins in a four game set at Yankee Stadium. Jameson Taillon got the start in game one. The Yankees took an early 1-0 lead in the first when Donaldson roped an RBI single. He was thrown out heading to second for the double. The Yanks added to their lead in the third when Marwin Gonzalez hit a solo home run. The Twins tied it up in the fifth when Gary Sanchez hit a two run homer off of Taillon. Taillon was pulled after five solid innings with two earned runs. Greg Weissert threw a scoreless sixth inning. The Yankees took the lead in the sixth when Aaron Judge blasted a his 54th bomb of the season to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead. Weissert got the first out in the seventh, and then Wandy Peralta came in to finish the inning. The Yankees added to their lead in the seventh when Isiah Kiner - Falefa hit a solo shot to make it 5-2. Peralta went back out for the eighth and threw a scoreless inning. Clay Holmes got the save in the ninth. The Yankees grabbed game one of the four game set by a score of 5-2.
Domingo German got the start in game one of the double header and game two of the series. He gave up an early two run homer to Jose Miranda in the first to give the Twins a 2-0 lead. The Twins made it 3-0 in the third with a Gilberto Calestino RBI single. The Yankees got on the board in the fourth when Aaron Judge crushed his 55th home run of the season to make it 3-1. German was pulled after six innings with three earned runs and six strikeouts. The Yankees tied up the ballgame in the sixth when Gleyber Torres hit a clutch two run homer. Wany Peralta and Jonathan Loaisiga tossed scoreless seventh and eighth innings. Clay Holmes tossed a shutout ninth. The Yanks were unable to score in the bottom of the inning so this one went to extras. Holmes came back out for the tenth and held the Twins. The Yanks were also held in the tenth. Ron Marinaccio threw a scoreless eleventh. The Yankees had an opportunity to end it in the eleventh but the rookie Ronald Guzman grounded into a double play and the Yanks did not score in the eleventh. Marinaccio came back out for the twelfth, but he gave up an RBI single to Gilbert Calestino to give the Twins a 4-3 lead. Ron was pulled, and Greg Weissert finished the inning. The Yankees tied up the game in the bottom of the twelfth with an RBI single from Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The Yankees walked it off later that inning from an RBI single by Oswaldo Cabrera. This big 5-4 victory secured the series split.
Gerrit Cole started in the second game of the double header and the third game of the series. He gave up a solo shot to Carlos Correa in the third inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. The Yankees took the lead in the fourth from an Isiah Kiner-Falefa grand slam. Gerrit Cole went on to toss 6.2 innings with one earned run and fourteen strikeouts. Cole turned in one of the most physically dominant outings of the season. He looked incredible in this one. Lucas Luetge came on and got the final out of the seventh and tossed a scoreless eighth. The Yankees got some big insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when Aaron Hicks hit a bases clearing double to make it 7-1. Luetge headed back out for the ninth and closed out the game. This 7-1 win allowed the Yankees to sweep the double header and secured the series victory.
Nestor Cortes Jr took the ball in game four of the four game set against the Twins. The Yankees were looking to complete the sweep, and the Twins wanted to salvage the final game. The Yankees got a 2-0 lead in the second from Miguel Andujar’s first home run of the season. Nestor looked great through the first four innings, but he gave up an RBI double to Gary Sanchez in the fifth. Nestor was pulled after four innings mainly because the Yankees did not want Nestor to throw too many pitches in his first outing after his I.L stint. Clarke Schmidt came on and gave up a RBI single to Nick Gordon. Clarke ended up throwing three innings. Wandy Peralta came on for the eighth. He gave up a questionable single on a close play at first that was reviewed but not overturned. Wandy was pulled after 0.2 innings, and Greg Weissert came on to face the right handed Carlos Correa. Weissert gave up a two run homer to Correa to give the Twins a 4-2 lead. The Yankees had an opportunity to tie it up in the eighth, but they could only score one run on a wild pitch. Ryan Weber came out for the ninth and kept it a 4-3 game. The Yankees had an opportunity to tie it or take the ninth when Gleyber Torres stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Torres struck out swinging, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa came up. IKF was looking to come up with another clutch hit in this series, but there was no dice. IKf grounded out to second to end the game. The Yankees dropped the final game of this four game set by a score of 4-3. They did take three out of four from the Twins and picked up a series victory. The Yankees will now face off against the Tampa Bay Rays in a three game set at Yankee Stadium. This is the biggest series of the season to date because the Rays are only down four games to the Yankees. The Yankees could either put a nice gap between them and Tampa this weekend, or this could get dangerously close.
By : Riley Briggs