New York Yankees defeat Minnesota Twins 8-4 – MLB Update
The New York Yankees overpowered the Minnesota Twins 8-4 in the first outing of the four-game series at Target Field in Minneapolis on Thursday, August 18.
The Yankees’ batting squad played a vital role in New York dominating the start of the series.
Brett Gardner led the game off with his sacrifice fly hit to right-field which allowed Erik Nunez to score the first run of the outing in the second inning.
Yankees’ starter Carsten Charles Sabathia did not protect this lead and allowed an easy two runs to the Twins’ batters, Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Drew Butera. Nishioka singled to centre-field, scoring Justin Thome while Butera hit into fielder’s choice to centre,
allowing Danny Valencia to score.
The Yankees were trailing 2-1 at the end of the second inning, but Mark Teixeira hammered a spectacular two-run homer to snatch the lead back to his team. This time Sabathia successfully defended the 3-2 lead and held the Twins under great pressure with
his fast sliders and gritty snickers.
Nick Swisher added fuel with his 378-feet long two-run homer in the fifth inning to take the advantage to 5-2. Allan Jones followed him with a bigger one 423-feet extensive home-run to take the lead to 6-2 until the top of the fifth inning.
"We have the ability to score runs in bunches," manager Joe Girardi said. "That's just the kind of offense we are, but a difference this year is that we have a lot more speed and we run a lot more."
Having a lead, made Sabathia relax a little as he allowed two runs, one each to Ben Revere and Joe Mauer. However, the left-handed pitcher recorded his 17th win of the season, allowing only four runs over seven innings. He also added nine more
strike-outs to his 175 record, one of the biggest accounts in American League.
Like always before, Sabathia spoke but little words to reporters after the game.
He said, "I felt good. I kind of got back to slinging the ball."
David Robertson and Cory Wade gave full support with their scoreless innings to close the game.
The Twins’ Brian Duensing had another bad outing, as he lost his 12th game of the season, permitting ten hits, six runs and one walk over just five innings.
Jose Mijares, Alex Burnett and Glen Perkins managed to escape themselves from stormy hitting of the Yankees. However, closer Matt Capps could not get away Francisco Cervelli’s infield single that gave the Yankees two more runs in the top of the ninth inning.
Yankees are now leading the American League with 75 wins. They are still five games behind of the Major League Baseball-leading club, Philadelphia Phillies, who currently have 80 wins.
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