Yankees Recap: Offense, Tanaka Dominate Twins

Prior to this road trip, Yankee fans were expecting big offensive outputs against the pitching-deficient Rockies and Twins. After a pair of disappointing results in Colorado, and another near-disappointment on Thursday (saved by Didi Gregorius), the Yankee offense finally came to life in Friday’s 8-2 win in Minnesota.

The Yankee lineup set the tone from the very first at-bat, and Masahiro Tanaka took the rare show of run support and didn’t look back.

After a brief rain delay, Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with a base hit. Rob Refsnyder, batting in the number two hole and getting another start at first base, immediately doubled Ellsbury in to score. Carlos Beltran, the very next batter, took Twins’ starter Pat Dean deep (his 17th of the year) to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead in what seemed like the blink of an eye. From that point on, the game took on the feeling of a laugher.

After tacking on another run in the first, the Yankees did not let up. They put up three runs in the third frame to force Dean out of the game. With one already in, Austin Romine‘s one-out double allowed both Starlin Castro and Gregorius to score. That gave the Yankees a 7-1 lead.

While the offense provided plenty of punch, the game turned into a laugher because of who was on the mound. Tanaka was brilliant. Pitching on an extra day’s rest, the Yankee ace went eight innings and pushed his pitch count to a season-high 110. He allowed one run in the second, but it came on a groundout. Aside from that, he was virtually unblemished. He scattered seven hits, walked none and struck out five. He improved his record to 4-2, finally getting some run support, and lowered his ERA to 2.91.

The talk surrounding Tanaka’s need for an extra day of rest will only continue after Friday’s performance. On five days of rest, Tanaka is now pitching to a 1.24 ERA in 43.2 innings. This was just the second time all year the right-hander pitched through eight.

Nick Goody was on the mound in the ninth for the Yanks. He allowed a one-out homer to Eduardo Escobar for the Twins’ second run.

Both the Orioles and Red Sox lost on Friday so the Yankees were able to gain some ground in the standings. At 33-34, they now sit 5.5 games behind first-place Baltimore, and 4.5 games in back of Boston and Toronto in the Wild Card standings.

The Yankees can make it three in a row, and a series win, on Saturday afternoon at 2:10 PM EDT. In the third of four from Minnesota, the Yankees will send Michael Pineda (3-7, 5.88 ERA) to the mound. The Twins (20-47) will counter with Ricky Nolasco (3-4, 5.12 ERA).

Notes

• Rob Refsnyder was 2-for-4, continuing his strong play against left-handed pitching.
• Carlos Beltran is now sixth in the A.L. in both home runs (17) and RBI (46).
• Chase Headley was on base all four times (2-for-2, two walks) and has his average all the way up to .259 after that brutal start.