The Yankees began a 4-game home series with the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. Cliche alert: Walks can kill you, especially leadoff walks. Brett Gardner began the Yankee side of the game by drawing a walk off Jake Odorizzi, then stealing 2nd. Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius both struck out, but Giancarlo Stanton, shocking everybody, drew a walk. And then came a double by Gary Sanchez and a single by Aaron Hicks.
This gave Masahiro Tanaka a 3-0 cushion, and he cruised through the 1st 4 innings. He allowed a run in the 5th, but got out of a jam. Home runs by Miguel Andujar in the 3rd and Giancarlo Stanton in the 5th made it 5-1 Yankees.
The Yankees piled on in the 7th. Judge led off with a double. Gregorius popped up, but Stanton singled Judge home. After a Sanchez fly out, Hicks walked, and Tyler Austin doubled them home. 8-1.
Super Prospect Gleyber Torres started his major league career 0-for-7, and I was waiting for somebody to tell me that Willie Mays went 0-for-his-1st-12, and he turned out all right. Well, Torres finally got his 1st hit, a leadoff single up the middle in the 8th.
That's when the ceiling fell in on the Twins. Probably from the Yankees jumping on the roof. Again, walks can kill you, and Gardner and Judge walked to load the bases with nobody out. And Didi crushed a ball to right-center, for a grand slam.
It wasn't over: Stanton singled. Finally, an out, as Sanchez grounded into a force play that eliminated Stanton. Hicks popped up. Then Austin crushed a home run, putting a 6 in the Yankee run column for that inning alone.
Yankees 14, Twins 1. WP: Tanaka (3-2). No save. LP: Odorizzi (1-2).
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CC Sabathia started the Tuesday night game, and was his old self, going 6 innings, allowing 1 run, unearned, 2 hits and 1 walk.
But this series was The Gary Sanchez Show. He hit 2 homers on the day, a solo shot in the 2nd and a 2-run job in the 7th. Didi hit another, and Judge hit one as well.
Dellin Betances was shaky in the 7th inning, and had to be bailed out by David Robertson. Chasen Shreve allowed a run in the 8th, but Jonathan Holder finished the game with a perfect 9th. Yankees 8, Twins 3. WP: Sabathia (1-0). No save. LP: Jose Berrios (2-2).
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The Wednesday night game did not start well, as Miguel Sano gave the Twins a 2-0 lead with a home run off Sonny Gray in the 1st inning. But the Yankees started their half of the inning with 3 straight singles, by Gardner, Judge and Gregorius, to close to within 2-1. Gregorius and Austin hit home runs in the 3rd, and that made it 5-2 Yanks. Sacrifice flies by Judge in the 4th and Stanton in the 8th added runs for the Yankees.
Gray didn't make it out of the 5th, needing 1 more out to qualify for the win, so, even though the Yankees were up 6-3 at the time, he didn't get it. Chad Green finished the 5th and pitched a scoreless 6th, but allowed a run in the 7th. Shreve, Robertson and Chapman allowed only 1 baserunner between them the rest of the way.
Yankees 7, Twins 4. WP: Green (2-0). SV: Chapman (4 -- despite the sweep, this was the only save in the 4 games). LP: Lance Lynn (0-2).
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Then yesterday was a getaway day, so it was a day game. Jordan Montgomery started for the Pinstripes, but after 5 innings, was trailing 2-0 and had already thrown 98 pitches. Domingo allowed another run in the 6th, and Kyle Gibson had a 1-hit, 10-strikeout shutout through 6. It looked like Minnesota would salvage the series.
Then Twins manager Paul Molitor made a Girardi-esque mistake: He saw that Gibson had thrown 95 pitches, and brought in Addison Reed to pitch the 7th. A Stanton double, a wild pitch getting him to 3rd, and a Hicks sac fly made it 3-1.
Molitor continued to Girardi the game, bringing a new pitcher in for the 8th, Duke. He allowed a single to Torres, who got to 2nd on an error, but Duke stranded him. Then Dellin Betances struck out the side in the top of the 9th, and Molitor brought in another pitcher for the bottom of the 9th, Fernando Rodney. As you may have noticed, Fernando Rodney is not a good relief pitcher.
Didi grounded to 3rd, and Sano made his 2nd error of the game. Stanton singled. And then game El Gary, who crushed one deep to left field. It was the 1st walkoff home run of his career.
Yankees 4, Twins 3. WP: Betances (1-1). No save. LP: Rodney (1-2).
Home runs on the year: Gregorius 9, Judge 7, Sanchez 6, Stanton 5, Austin 5, Andujar 3.
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So now the Yankees go out on a tough Western roadtrip, 3 in Anaheim and 4 in Houston. They are 15-9, 4 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League Eastern Division, and, if the current standings were to hold, would get the 2nd Wild Card slot.
If they can get 4 out of the 7, they'll be in pretty good shape going into May. Come on you Bombers!