“Never get too high or too low” is advice the Yankees have taken to heart in 2016, as a 5-3 win over the Twins Friday night helped them once again even up their record at a steady 36-36. It marks the third time this month that the team has fallen below the .500 mark only to claw their way back. While towing that line can be quite frustrating at times, it’s hard not to be impressed with the club’s ability to appear doomed, only to buoy themselves back up to respectability.
Masahiro Tanaka was not particularly sharp in this one, surrendering seven hits and two walks over six innings. He was able to strand Brian Dozier after a double in the second inning, but got into trouble by giving up three consecutive hits to open the third. The Twins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the frame on a two-run single by Eduardo Nunez. The Yankee bats battled back in the bottom half as Carlos Beltran continued his hot-hitting ways with a two-out double that scored Brett Gardner all the way from first base to cut Minnesota’s lead in half. Alex Rodriguez followed by ripping his second hit of the night, scoring Beltran from second to tie the game.
The Twins got to Tanaka again in the fourth, however, after a Byung-ho Park walk and Kurt Suzuki double put runners on second and third with one out. Byron Buxton helped Minnesota take a 3-2 lead on a sacrifice fly before Tanaka was able to battle out of the inning. The Yankees stormed back yet again when they came to the plate though, starting the inning with a walk, bunt single and a reach-on-error to load the bases with none out. Austin Romine tied the game with a sac-fly before Eduardo Escobar made a terrific stab at shortstop to save a run. With two outs though, Rob Refsnyder ripped a line drive single to left-center to give the Yankees their first lead of the game, 4-3.
Tanaka was able to settle down from then on, scattering a pair of hits and keeping the Twins off the scoreboard until it was time for the three-headed bullpen monster to take over, and take over they did. Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman recorded all nine outs Joe Girardi asked of them without allowing a baserunner, locking down the comeback victory for the Yanks.
The Play: A-Rod’s game-tying single in the third (+.124 WPA)
A-Rod picked up a pair of singles in his first two trips to the plate Friday. The latter one loomed large, helping erase the Twins’ advantage by scoring Beltran from second with two outs in the inning.
Top Performers
Yankees: Alex Rodriguez (2 for 4, 1 RBI)
Twins: Kurt Suzuki (2 for 3, 1 2B, 1 R)
Notes
-Aaron Hicks hit a solo shot in the eighth to pad the Yankees’ lead. The homer was his third of the season and his first from the right side of the plate. Before 2016, Hicks had been much more prone to flash power as a RHB than as a lefty, hitting a nearly equal number of homers despite less than half as many plate appearances.
-Chapman began the ninth inning by striking out Escobar and Park on six pitches, and then struck out Suzuki for good measure to end the game. He dialed up his fastball as high as 103 mph.
The Quote
“I told our guys to just win series…you have to win series, that’s the important thing. If you do that, you’re probably going to be ok. We didn’t do it early on and got ourselves in trouble. We’ve had to dig out of a hole a little bit, but there’s still a long way to go.” Manager Joe Girardi on the team’s difficulty with moving past .500
The Highlight: Gardner scores all the way from first on Beltran’s double
Beltran has far and away been the Yankees’ best hitter in 2016, and he continued that Friday with a double that put the Yankees on the scoreboard. It was Beltran’s 15th double of the season and 52nd RBI.
Up Next
The Yankees will attempt to build upon their .500 record rather than sink below yet again when they send Michael Pineda to the mound to face Minnesota’s Ervin Santana tomorrow afternoon. The Yankees faced Santana just last Sunday, a start in which he held them to two earned runs over 7 and 1/3 innings pitched. Pineda, meanwhile, allowed three earned runs in just 5 and 1/3 innings when he faced the Twins last Saturday. Game time is 1:05 PM.
Lead photo: Anthony Gruppuso / USA Today Sports