Yankees rally from behind for 7-6 win over Twins

Source: FanGraphs

The first six innings of Saturday afternoon’s game did not go too well for the Yankees. Thankfully, the Twins are still the Twins, and the Yankees always manage to get the best of them. New York won Saturday’s game 7-6 despite trailing 4-0 at one point. It’s Saturday night, so let’s recap with bullet points:

• Two-Out Damage: The Twins tagged Michael Pineda for four runs (three earned) in 5.1 innings, and you’re never going to believe this, but all four runs scored with two outs. Pineda is usually excellent at closing out innings and limiting mistakes with two outs. (That was an attempt at humor.) Eduardo Escobar burned Pineda with an RBI single in the second, then Byung-Ho Park clobbered an opposite field two-run homer in the fourth. Anthony Swarzak allowed an inherited runner to score on Park’s sac fly, so technically Pineda was only on the mound for three of those four runs, but still. He continues to have problems finishing innings. Sigh.
• The Board of Trustees: A 4-0 deficit is usually daunting, but the Twins have the worst record in baseball for a reason. Alex Rodriguez started the comeback with a two-run opposite field homer in the seventh inning — it was A-Rod’s first homer since June 3rd — and Carlos Beltran evened the game at 4-4 with a two-run opposite field homer in the eighth. The Yankees loaded the bases on two walks and a bunt single in the ninth, then took the lead on Jacoby Ellsbury’s two-run single. Brett Gardner plated an insurance run the team would ultimately need with a sac fly. The Yankees scored five runs in two innings against Minnesota’s bullpen.
• Nail-Biting Time: A three-run lead in the ninth is usually no big deal. Aroldis Chapman decided to make things interesting though. He allowed back-to-back homers by Escobar and Kurt Suzuki, and they couldn’t have been more different. Escobar’s was a wall-scraper that I thought would get reviewed to make sure it actually cleared the fence. Suzuki’s was a bomb into the second deck. Suzuki fouled off five pitches as part of a nine-pitch at-bat. He really battled. Chapman eventually got the final out for his 13th save. He picked a good day to get the dingers out of his system.
• Leftovers: The 1-2-3 hitters (Ellsbury, Gardner, Beltran) went a combined 6-for-14 (.429) and drove in five of the team’s seven runs … Didi Gregorius had three more hits — including the bunt single in the ninth — to raise his season batting line to .287/.319/.413 (96 wRC+) … Rob Refsnyder went 1-for-3 with a walk while Ike Davis went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Refsnyder for regular first baseman, please … Swarzak allowed an inherited runner to score but he also retired all five men he faced, giving the offense a chance to get back into the game … the Yankees are now 21-5 all-time at Target Field, postseason included.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Also make sure you check out our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages too. The Yankees will try for the four-game sweep — they’ve already had two of those this year, you know — Sunday afternoon. Nathan Eovaldi and Ervin Santana will be on the mound.