The House of Horrors that is Yankee Stadium for the Minnesota Twins rolled on Monday as the Bronx Bombers hit three solo home runs, the Twins countered with two of their own and then the bullpen let it slip away for a 6-2 Yankees win.
Despite being tagged with the loss, starting pitcher Daniel Zebulon Matthews pitched pretty well. In fact, he was an out away from making a quality start. Instead, he gave the Twins five-plus innings on the mound. He served up the three solo shots, but he also fanned nine batters and walked only one.
Rookies Luke Keaschall, Ryan Fitzgerald and young players like Austin Martin have injected a lot of fun into this lineup in recent days, but you’re also not going to replace the likes of Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Jhoan Duran overnight, and right now Brooks Kriske and Erasmo Ramirez are not the answer.
Kriske followed Matthews and he struck out the first batter he faced. He then served up a double, a walk, uncorked a wild pitch (which advanced the runner) and back-to-back singles to make it 5-2 New York. Ramirez then entered the game and served up the fourth and final solo home run of the game.
The Twins will try again Tuesday. A starter has not been named.
Extra innings…
–The Yankees have hit an American League-leading 187 home runs, so there’s always that to contend with. The Twins have hit 140.
–The hitting streaks for both Keaschall and Jeffers came to an end on Monday because the club had a grand total of three hits.
–Two of the three hits, both home runs, belonged to Byron Buxton and Trevor Larnach. Buck hit No. 24 and Larnach followed him with No. 16.
–The New York Post licked its chops over the arrival of the Twins.
To wit:
- The game story headline: ‘Yankees’ woes disappear as they bully familiar foil Twins for much-needed win’
- From the story: “Suddenly, their woes disappeared. The Twins, the personal punching bag for the Yankees over the past two decades, have that effect on them.”
- From the story: “The Yankees have beaten them eight straight times and are 30-5 against them at the Stadium since 2015.”
- From the story: “There were a number of positives, from (starting pitcher) Warren’s sterling effort to (Aaron) Judge coming through with a key hit late after struggling since coming off the IL. But perhaps the biggest one was this: Two more games against the Twins.”
- And the most shocking stat: The Yankees are 124-44 (including the playoffs) against the Twins since 2002.
–The Milwaukee Brewers are on some kind of tear. They have won 10 straight and now have the best record in baseball at 74-44, which is 6.5 games better than the second-place Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.