A five-run fifth inning doomed the Minnesota Twins in today’s 6-3 loss to the New York Yankees. Bartolo Colon went four innings, giving up eight hits and four earned runs. Ryan Pressly, who entered in relief of Colon, gave up the other two. Minnesota left 12 men on base in the loss.
“Bartolo was pretty good early,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor. “You could tell he was kinda changing speeds on his fastball a little bit, but had really good late movement, and he mixed in a couple change-ups and sliders, but mostly he was just trying to rely on that two-seamer kind of as advertised.”
Colon sat at 84-89 mph in the outing and cruised through four innings before the Yankee lineup got to him in the fifth. His highlight was striking out superstar rookie Aaron Judge in the first inning.
“They had some pretty funny swings the first couple times around, trying to figure out the best approach,” said Molitor. “And the the fact that it was 84-89 mph kept them a little bit off-balance. They tried to stay back on on it, and put a little extra on it, so I liked how he changed speeds on his fastball, and I thought he got in on the guys he was supposed to get in on, and backdoor the guys he was supposed to.
“It could have turned out better, that’s for sure.”
Molitor said Colon, who threw 82 pitches (53 strikes), could have gone up to 100 tonight. He also said he did not look fatigued. He is expected to start Monday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As for leaving men on base and not driving in runners in scoring position — that’s a problem. Minnesota did not capitalize on Max Kepler’s one-out double in the third inning, which proceeded Miguel Sano’s home run, and Jason Castro’s double and Brian Dozier’s triple, which came in back-to-back plate appearances in the fourth.
Additionally, after the Yankees’ five-run fifth, the Twins could have immediately struck back. Miguel Sano doubled and Max Kepler singled to start the inning, but strikeouts by Robbie Grossman and Eddie Rosario, and a pop out by Jorge Polanco stranded them. Zach Granite lined out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.
“It’s a little different with two outs there, you need a hit, a fly ball doesn’t work, and he’s been putting together pretty good at-bats,” said Molitor. “He can handle velocity, he put a decent swing on that pitch. It’s a tough order with [New York relievers Dellin] Betances and [Aroldis] Chapman at the end, we all know that at third, getting it over the plate.”
“We had four or five chances with less than two outs and a man on third, and we failed in every opportunity,” said Molitor. “And those were the kind of things that you need to do if you expect to win those kind of games.”
It was a missed opportunity to set up a potential sweep of the Yankees, win the first game Colon pitched for the Twins and move closer to the Cleveland Indians for the AL Central lead. With the loss tonight, the Twins are 47-46, two games back of Cleveland and a game-and-a-half behind the Yankees for the second Wild Card spot in the American League.
