The Yankees sent Gerrit Cole to the mound for the finale of their visit to Minneapolis, but he sure didn't pitch like an ace. He didn't get out of the 3rd inning.
Or, to put it another way: Cole faced 17 batters, threw 70 pitches, allowing 7 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks; the rest of the Yankee staff combined, last night, 22 batters, 84 pitches, no runs, 1 hit, 2 walks. Indeed, Cole allowed home runs to the 1st 3 batters the Minnesota Twins sent up.
Sounds like King Cole was a Cold King last night. Sounds like the kind of night where Brian Cashman's policy of "Bomb them out of the yard, so it doesn't matter how good our pitching is" was needed. Here's what we got:
* With 1 out in the 1st inning: Aaron Judge drew a walk, Anthony Rizzo singled him to 3rd, and Josh Donaldson got Judge home on a sacrifice fly.
* With 2 outs in the 2nd: Jose Trevino singled, and Joey Gallo hit a home run.
* Leading off the 5th: Gallo hit another home run, and DJ LeMahieu made it back-to-back home runs.
* Leading off the 6th: Gleyber Torres singled, and Aaron Hicks hit a home run. So the 2 most-booed Yankees, Gallo and Hicks, between them, went 4-for-10 with 3 home runs and 6 RBIs.
* Leading off the 7th: Judge doubled, Rizzo singled him home, Donaldson singled and stole 2nd, Torres reached on an error, and Hicks singled home Donaldson.
* With 2 out in the 8th: Rizzo walked, Donaldson doubled, Torres walked to load the bases, and Rizzo scored on a wild pitch.
Yankees 10, Twins 7. WP: Miguel Castro (3-0). SV: Clay Holmes (9). LP: Jhoan Duran (0-2, and, yes, that's how he spells his name, worse than Jhonny Peralta).
The Yankees are now 7 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, who won last night; and 7 1/2 ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, who were idle.
Tonight, the Yankees begin a 3-game weekend Interleague series, with the Chicago Cubs.