Yankees 10, Twins 7: You're Never Gonna Guess What Happened

[Matt Braun]

No one predicted this would occur, yet everyone saw it coming.

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Dylan Bundy, 4 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, BB, K
Home Runs: Luis Arraez (2), Byron Buxton 2 (14, 15), Carlos Correa (4), Trevor Larnach (5)
Top 3 WPA: Byron Buxton (.337), Luiz Arraez (.094), Carlos Correa (.068)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Dylan Bundy matched up against Gerrit Cole in the series' rubber match. It looked like a classic David-vs-Goliath battle nestled within a broader clash in a similar vein; the Twins against the Yankees.

Bundy coughed up a run in the 1st inning off some dinks and dunks, but the real story of the inning wouldn’t exist until the bottom half. Luis Arraez sent a ball over the wall for a solo homer, Byron Buxton followed suit, and Carlos Correa finally made it an improbable three-peat with a solo home run that made it a 3-1 game before Cole recorded a single out. For real, against Cole.

But this was just the 1st inning—one against the Yankees no less; the game was far from over.

Bundy nabbed two quick outs in the 2nd inning before Jose Trevino dumped a single into center, and muscly big man Joey Gallo provided the “blast” portion of “a bloop and a blast.” 1st inning fanfare could barely have time to recede before the game turned tied.

Because this was a Yankees vs. Twins game, the craziness refused to exit the ballpark, and Buxton launched a three-run homer off Cole in the bottom of the 2nd to push the lead to 6-3. Again, against Gerrit Cole.

The Yankees went quietly in the 3rd—perhaps saving their torrent for later—and Trevor Larnach tacked on a solo shot for the 5th Twins homer of the night. 

There’s probably some German word out there for it—god knows how to spell or say it—but the feeling at this point became an uneasy comfort, one that acknowledges the incredible lead while still not believing for a second that it will hold. Sure, the Twins held a four-run lead after dumping all over one of the finest starting pitchers in the sport, but come on, we know how this story goes; we aren’t fools. 

The Yankees moved in the 5th inning. Bundy gave up a massive homer to Joey Gallo, the second of the night for the former Ranger before Rocco Baldelli took the lonely trot to the mound and called upon Jharel Cotton in the hopes that he could provide some necessary relief. He did not. A tough missed strike three call necessitated an extra pitch, and D.J. Lemahieu cut the lead down to two with a solo bomb of his own.

The Twins' offense was in scuffle mode. Yankees lefty Lucas Leutge pulled a Chad Green in 2017 (since when has it almost been five years since that game?) and held back the onslaught while New York’s bats chipped away as the outs melted away slower than the Twins would have liked. At this point, Twins fans anticipated the dreadful reality of this game's conclusion. The lead lasted one more full inning before, sigh, old friend Aaron Hicks knotted the game at 7 with a two-run homer. 

It didn’t stop there—the Yankees jumped all over Jhoan Duran and plated two more runs thanks to an Anthony Rizzo single and a Hicks opposite-field knock. New York took just four innings to tie and eventually overtake Minnesota’s quick, fleeting lead.

Slow, draining baseball followed until the game mercifully ended. Whatever reliever Aaron Boone chose didn’t matter; they all methodically shut down a Twins offense that crushed Gerrit Cole but could find no answers for Wandy Peralta. The team mustered up just one lonely hit once the struggling starter exited the game. So it goes.

The Yankees plated another run—they didn’t matter at this point, but the spirit of competition and sportsmanship call for it—and Minnesota officially fell to New York by a score of 10-7.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

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[Aggies7]

Full on fetal position after the gallo homer to start the 5th against bundy and the subsequent missed strike 3/homer allowed by cotton. One single baserunner after that

[USAFChief]

1. Ryan has to take Bundy's next start in Seattle, no? 

2. Polanco had a pretty brutal game. 

3. It seems like every inning is an entire game against that lineup. They force you to get them out WITHIN the zone.

And finally, while I think we'd all have accepted 3-3 against Tor/NY a week ago...that was really deflating.

 

 

 

[LastOnePicked]

I should be more mad. I'm not. I expected a very easy Yankees sweep, but our boys snuck out a win and played fairly close baseball in the other two. The fight continues.

But that Hicks trade ... keeps on stinging. 

[USAFChief]

3 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Full on fetal position after the gallo homer to start the 5th against bundy and the subsequent missed strike 3/homer allowed by cotton. One single baserunner after that

I felt like the Urshela baserunning blunder was the point at which the Twins remembered who they were playing.

[BH67]

Not in agreement on fetal position.  Also confident that this Twins team will not cower to the Yankees on the return trip or in a possible division series.  Perhaps contrary to most of you, and I get it.  Good to see Buxton en fuego.

[Aggies7]

4 minutes ago, BH67 said:

Not in agreement on fetal position.  Also confident that this Twins team will not cower to the Yankees on the return trip or in a possible division series.  Perhaps contrary to most of you, and I get it.  Good to see Buxton en fuego.

What did they do that makes you disagree? The defense collapsed which directly led to at least two runs. One baserunner. Worked no counts. Zero effective relief.
 

I would HOPE that we won’t still be starting people like bundy and sands by then, which will greatly help. But will still probably have a weak bullpen

[Vanimal46]

I wouldn’t have let Bundy try a single pitch in the 5th inning. It all started snowballing downhill from there. 

Polanco had a bad evening on the field. Him and Correa miscommunicating on the routine infield pop up followed up by Hicks HR the next at bat was the turning point in the game. 

Duran being off tonight certainly didn’t help. However, we all need the reminder he’s still just a rookie who’s been a reliever for all of 10 weeks. 

Tonight we are sobered by the fact that the Yankees are on pace to win 110+ games. That shouldn’t belittle the fact that the Twins are on pace to win 90+ games themselves.  

[BH67]

5 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

What did they do that makes you disagree? The defense collapsed which directly led to at least two runs. One baserunner. Worked no counts. Zero effective relief.

You're in Scranton?  You definitely see lots of future Yankees. (I lived in Allentown for a few years and saw lots of future Phillies.  Not quite the same thing.)

A thorough blasting of Cortes and Cole is significantly different from the efforts of previous Twins teams.  There's genuine fire alongside the talent, even if it faded tonight.  Agreed that better starting pitching will help significantly.

[Aggies7]

Unfortunately, it looks like it has officially turned to midnight on Joe smith. It was a good story and he was the double play ball machine early on, but I would think his days of high leverage situations are about over. Unless by necessity 

[Aggies7]

2 minutes ago, BH67 said:

You're in Scranton?  You definitely see lots of future Yankees.

A thorough blasting of Cortes and Cole is significantly different from the efforts of previous Twins teams.  There's genuine fire alongside the talent, even if it faded tonight.

I worked for their AAA team for almost ten years, but left before this current crop came through. So I always take these gut wrenching losses harder. LOTS of yankee fans here. I work with many

[jimbo92107]

You play the Nyorks, you go to war, baby. You better bring some mean old relief pitchers that give up runs only after the toughest fight. Our boys weren't ready. How are they supposed to get ready in the cushy, weak Central Division? This bullpen needs some serious changes. 

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Box score shows one error.  Should be three, but apparently you can't charge both E6 and E4 when a batter only gains one base. Why would you ever spot the Yankees an out, especially when you know the umpires will always find a way to handicap them one? That communication gap is going to have to be smoothed out in the manager's office.

Middle and late inning ABs got hasty again. Needed to transition from ambush mode to patience mode.

Faulting the pitchers against that lineup of "savages" is misplaced effort. We all saw how well they worked the count.  The Twins had them on the ropes, and the defense and offense should have kept them there.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

33 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Unfortunately, it looks like it has officially turned to midnight on Joe smith. It was a good story and he was the double play ball machine early on, but I would think his days of high leverage situations are about over. Unless by necessity 

Crazy talk.  Correa and Polanco owe him an earned run.

[USAFChief]

3 minutes ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

Crazy talk.  Correa and Polanco owe him an earned run.

And Hicks should buy him a beer. High dollar one, too.

[BH67]

33 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I worked for their AAA team for almost ten years, but left before this current crop came through. So I always take these gut wrenching losses harder. LOTS of yankee fans here. I work with many

We made a short drive to Scranton once to see friends staying at the hotel atop the huge bluff beyond left field at the RailRiders' ballpark.  Beautiful view -- and much taller than the Green Monster.

[Aggies7]

5 minutes ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

Crazy talk.  Correa and Polanco owe him an earned run.

Error wasn’t his fault, but he gave up the homer to hicks. His numbers the last month are poor to average at best. And lots of hard contact too

[Aggies7]

1 minute ago, BH67 said:

We made a short drive to Scranton once to see friends staying at the hotel atop the huge bluff beyond left field at the RailRiders' ballpark.  Beautiful view -- and much taller than the Green Monster.

Yep, that was my home for many years. The view is one of the best in the minors

[VivaBomboRivera!]

14 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Error wasn’t his fault, but he gave up the homer to hicks. His numbers the last month are poor to average at best. And lots of hard contact too

If everybody got fired for having a bad month, we'd all be out of work.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

18 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

And Hicks should buy him a beer. High dollar one, too.

It was a gift of a hanger, I grant you.

[glunn]

I hope that this is not a preview of the playoffs. The Twins need to get better.

[Aggies7]

9 minutes ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

If everybody got fired for having a bad month, we'd all be out of work.

I don’t think he should be fired, I just don’t trust him late anymore (although this was the sixth tonight)

[RaoulDuke]

I wasn't able to watch the game but was checking in.  It really hurts that I saw 7-3 in the 3rd and still thought they are going to lose this game, and it came true.

I get winning a Bundy vs Cole matchup is unlikely but holy **** they pounced on Cole and had no reason to lose this game. 

My big takeaway from all the failures vs NY is you never see an ex Twins pitcher on a Yankees roster.  There are plenty of hitters but I can't think of a single Twins pitcher that the Yankees acquired outside of Lance Lynn who was a weird case.  We are happy to get the Hughes and Pavanos of the world but NY has had zero interest in any pitchers we have rostered.  

 

 

[Game7-91]

Stunned  am I the good guys won one. Knock me over with a feather stunned. And 15 runs combined against Nestor and Gerit. Who wouldve thought?  But......

20 runs allowed in 2 losses. No further statistical analysis needed thank you.

I foresaw Sanchez inverting karma, a JR Murphy revenge series. Big #'s, single handedly win a couple. Oh for eight. Cashman still laughs.

Urshela a bit better but was a typical Twin when needed the most. These 2 were Bad Guys 3 months ago who surely wouldve raked in this series if still so.

Is it the uniform then? Something in the water? What is most needed for next series against Evil Empire?

   Stickem in our gloves

   Hotpepper in Bad Guys jocks

   Official exorcism of Bad Guys

   Above, but of Good Guys

   Twins take heavy doses of magic mushrooms b4 each game

   Or at least a lot of Ativan

   Better pitching

   Better hitting

   Better defending

   All of the above

   Some of the above

 

 

[Rosterman]

It just shows that the Twins don't need to depend of Duffey to give away a lead.

[bighat]

The past two series have shown that the Twins are several pitchers away from being able to realistically hang with lineups like the Jays & Yanks. Duffey and Bundy should be shown the door, but will likely keep their jobs once they get a chance against SEA and ARI next week. Unfortunate.

Twins are going to lose a boatload of prospects in July if they want to make a run at this thing. Get ready to say goodbye to many of your minor league favorites.

Appears the new humidor balls are out and the corked balls are back in play.

Was the umping bad on both sides or was it as lopsided as I feel it was?

To lose a game like this, where the Twins came out with 3 straight STATEMENT homers against the AL's best pitcher is frankly unforgiveable. Twins made errors and baserunning mistakes, but ultimately this is all on the pitchers. Horrific effort, couldn't rise to the moment. If the Twins get anywhere near the Yankees in the playoffs it's gonna be another sweep and it'll be a bloodbath.

 

[Jeff D.]

As a kid I would set up dominoes on end and create curves and straight runs, and figures then topple them. When I made an error and the dominoes failed to continue dropping, I would simply readjust that one domino and let it rip again....

It seems weird that the Twins go through these games where they start out blistering hot and then a switch goes off and they just lock up. It happened again. The dominoes did not continue to complete the run. 

We are a good team. We are not a championship team yet. The Yanks (damn them) drilled us again. Relief pitching failed, fielding failed, manager failed to grasp how to lead. We lost another game where we got the fans believing and like a great magician, we were left wondering..... "How did they do that!?"

Dominoes were easier.....GO TWINS!

 

[mikelink45]

The best assessment I can make is that the Yankees never quit.  No matter the score, no matter the inning.  They keep going.  We started out great, but the last three innings are where the Yanks shine.  And our BP???????????????? Come back Ryan, glad you got a warm up start, but get back to the Twins.  Then who.  I suspect he will replace Sands, but we need someone to move Bundy out of the rotation.

[bighat]

Saw this on Twitter:

 

[Whitey333]

I think most of us realized that with Bundy pitching no lead was safe.  I'm sure he tried hard but batting practice Bundy needs to go. Yes the two s went 3-3 against yanks and jays but twins are 6-10 in their last 16 games.  Everyone talks about how we are going to get hammered in the playoffs.  They are probably right IF they get there.  There is no guarantee this team will get there with a mediocre pitching staff.