NYY 6, MIN 3: All Too Familiar at Yankee Stadium

Box Score

Gibson: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 61.0% strikes (61 of 100 pitches)

Home Runs: Cruz (6)

Multi-Hit Games: Gonzalez (2-for-4)

WPA of +0.1: None

WPA of -0.1: Kepler -.139, Adrianza -.178, Gibson -.244

Chart via FanGraphs

The Twins current record is still tied for their best since 2001. It’s happened three other times since (2002, 2005, 2010) and in two of them the club has finished the season with 94 wins, winning the division in both and, in one of them, reaching the ALCS. Other than that, Minnesota still sits atop of the Central.

Kyle Gibson couldn’t repeat the stellar performance he had in his last trip to Yankee Stadium, in April of last year, when he struck out ten batters in six innings of shutout work. This time, he pitched five innings, allowing five runs, but only two earned, while striking out five batters. His outing was tainted by two key-errors by C.J. Cron and … Byron Buxton (yes, you read it right).

The offense couldn’t take advantage of the bad outing that James Paxton was having in the first three innings, before he departed due to a knee soreness. They loaded the bases twice against him, but scored only one run. Due to his recent struggles, Eddie Rosario didn’t start in this game. The Twins were held to only four hits and had 16 consecutive batters retired from the second inning until the eighth. A two-run homer from Cruz in the eighth helped create a late threat, but it wasn’t enough.

Story of the Game

After a 1-2-3 inning by James Paxton, Gibson had a shaky first inning. Buxton made a rare mistake when he couldn’t catch a line drive from Brett Gardner landing near second base, despite being able to get under it in time. This allowed Gardner to reach third. Immediately afterwards, Gibby gave up a walk to Luke Voit. Gleyber Torres scored Gardner later on, with a ground ball towards the gap between Ehire Adrianza and Jorge Polanco. Marwin Gonzalez, playing left field, made a great one-hop throw to home plate after a Gio Urshela single, in time to get Voit to end the inning.

The Twins offense started to make some noise in the top of the second, despite not being able to score in the end. Cron led off with a liner for a single, followed by another one by Marwin Gonzalez. Jonathan Schoop earned a one-out walk which loaded the bases, but Adrianza grounded into a double play to end the inning. Gibson's struggles continued in the bottom of the inning, as he he needed 13 pitches to strike out Mike Tauchman and then allowed the next two hitters to get on base. Voit drove in Cameron Maybin from second with a single, but he was put out at second after another great assist from Gonzalez to end the inning.

Minnesota cut the Yankee lead in half without a base hit. Buxton walked to lead off the third, after falling 0-2 in the count. Later, the bases were loaded after an error from Torres and another walk, for Nelson Cruz. Cron made it a one-run game with a sac-fly to score Buxton, before Max Kepler flied out to end the inning. Gibson had no major problems to get through the bottom of the inning. Two Yankees reached, but a double play got the job done.

Paxton didn’t come back to pitch the fourth, being replaced by the righty Jonathan Holder. He had a 1-2-3 inning, striking out Schoop — on a very questionable check swing — and Adrianza.

https://twitter.com/sung_minkim/status/1124472535171526661

A series of mistakes allowed the Yankees to score two more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Tauchman reached on an error from Cron. Then, after the runners moved up, the same Tauchman scored on a wild pitch. Gardner grounded out before the end, to score Maybin, making it 4-1 New York. At this point, only one of the four runs scored by the Yankees were earned.

Holder came back to cruise through the fifth, once again with a 1-2-3 inning. Gary Sánchez hit a 429 ft leadoff home run in the bottom of the inning, to make it 5-1 Yankees, before Gibby retired the following three batters. Adam Ottavino entered the game and also had a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the sixth, as the Twins hitters continued to have one of their worst games of the season. Recently promoted righty Mike Morin came in the game to pitch a perfect inning on 16 pitches, 11 of which were strikes.

While the offense was again dominated by the Yankee bullpen in yet another 1-2-3 inning (this time with Tommy Kahnle on the mound), New York struck again in the seventh. Sánchez hit his second solo homer of the game, off Morin, who had retired the first two batters he saw before him, making it 6-1.

After having 16 consecutive batters retired, the Twins struck back in the top of the eighth. Polanco drew a two-out walk and Cruz followed up with a bomb to left field, making it a 6-3 game.

https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1124493587687845888

Fernando Romero worked a scoreless eighth, with the help of the Twins’ second 6-4-3 double play. He got the job done with nine pitches (six strikes), giving up no hits or walks, but hitting Urshela. In the ninth, Aroldis Chapman gave up a leadoff single to Gonzalez and nearly saw Schoop get another hit two batters later, but he managed to close the deal with a near 100 mph fastball to strike out Adrianza.

Postgame With Baldelli

https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1124515069797076992

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

Next Three Games

Sat at NYY, 12:05 pm CT (Odorizzi-Happ)

Sun at NYY, 12:05 pm CT (Pineda-German)

Mon at TOR, 6:07 pm CT (TBD)

Last Game

MIN 8, HOU 2: Twins Win! Take Season Series vs Astros!