The Twins did what they do best in Game 1 of their three-game series against the dreaded New York Yankees on Monday. They hit and hit with power, blasting five home runs — four of them off C.C. Sabathia — en route to an 8-6 win.
Here is the full list of teams in MLB history with eight games of five or more homers in a season:
The 1977 Red Sox
The 2019 #MNTwinsThat's it.
— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) July 23, 2019
But before the ball began to fly out of Target Field, the Twins showed off the leather by turning a triple play, the 13th in team history.
The Bronx Bombers did not go quietly. They chased Twins starter Martin Perez after the fourth inning, but the bullpen limited the Yanks to one run the rest of the way.
The win went to Australian rookie, Lewis Thorpe; the save to Taylor Rogers. Rogers suffered a blown save in Saturday’s painful loss to the A’s, but ace status was restored Monday after he earned his 15th save on 12 pitches. That’s how it’s done, folks.
Kyle Gibson gets the ball Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-The Twins won Monday, but so did the Cleveland Indians, so the Twins’ AL Central lead remains at three games.
-Who hit the home runs? Jorge Polanco, Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, who hit his team-leading 25th, and catcher, Mitch Garver, who hit two and is now hitting better than .300 with 19 home runs.
-Who turned the triple play? Luis Arraez, Jonathan Schoop and Miguel Sano at first base. If Arraez can play third base that well, I hope he stays because I still consider Sano to be a defensive liability at that position. In addition to the triple play, the Twins also turned two double plays.
-The Twins scored eight runs on eight hits.
-It’s great to see the New York Post stew after the Yanks lost to the Twins. The headline: “Yankees allow many homers, one rare play in Sabathia fiasco.” That sounds about right.
-In other news: first baseman C.J. Cron is back on the injured list. The Twins have also called up pitcher Cody Stashak to reinforce the bullpen, according to MLB.com.
Stashak, 25, began the season with a 19-game stint in Double-A Pensacola before his promotion to Rochester, where he posted a 1.61 ERA with 31 strikeouts and four walks in 22 1/3 innings. He doesn’t have overpowering stuff but relies on the action of his pitches to generate outs as he aggressively attacks the strike zone.