Yankees Beat Twins 2-1, Michael Pineda Dominates

The New York Yankees pushed across a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat the Minnesota Twins 2-1 at Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon.

Michael Pineda looked calm, cool and in command as he registered another quality start. He relied more on his change up than usual. With the exception of a solo home run that he yielded to Brian Dozier, he was able to keep his slider down in the strike zone.

Dozier put the Twins ahead in the second inning with his solo blast.  But that was all Minnesota would muster against Pineda and the Yankees trio of Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman.

The Yankees tied the score against Twins’ starter Ervin Santana in the bottom of the fifth.  Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner and Carlos Beltran singled back to back to back. Every hit was a hard one. Alex Rodriguez missed a chance to put the Yankees on top by flying out to end the inning.

The Twins flirted with a triple play in the bottom of the sixth. Starlin Castro grounded to Eduardo Nunez at third base. Nunez stepped on the third base bag and then threw to second for a force out, but there was no throw to first base to attempt to complete the triple play.

Rodriguez got everything started in the eighth with a dribbling infield single. Manager Joe Girardi inserted Aaron Hicks as a pinch runner. Brian McCann drilled a single to move Hicks to third base. Castro then smashed a hot shot that got passed short stop Eduardo Escobar to bring Hicks home with the deciding run.

Pineda allowed only one run on two hits with eight strike outs in his six innings. Mark Teixeira played first for the Yankees. Betances, Miller and Chapman once again looked dominant. Betances needed only nine pitches to set the Twins down. Miller followed with a 12 pitch scoreless eighth. Chapman closed it out in the ninth.

The win moves the Yankees record to 37-36. With a win tomorrow, they can go two games over .500 to reach their high mark of the year.