Twins

7/19 GAME NOTES: Twins Ride a Six-Run Second Inning to Beat Yankees 6-1

With a 6-1 win over New York today, the Minnesota Twins have taken a series from the Yankees for the first time in Target Field history. It is the first series win since 2014, and first home series they’ve taken since 2008.

“We bunched them together,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor, referring to a six-run second inning that doomed the Yankees. “We’ve had a little trouble getting some clutch here since we’ve come out of the break, and we put three together in a row.”

Zach Granite, a New York native, scored Chris Gimenez and Ehire Adrianza for the first two RBI of his major league career off of Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery to start the scoring in the second. Then Brian Dozier walked, Eduardo Escobar had an RBI single and Miguel Sano homered to build a lead New York could not overcome for the rest of the game.

“I told him this morning, I said, you know, I know the hits have been hard to come by, but it’s just a tic,” said Molitor. “It doesn’t look like he’s really trying to panic or force the action. He’s getting some good swings, putting them in play for the most part.”

As for Sano, this put to rest any notion that the Home Run Derby — which he plans to participate in next year — messed up his swing. It was his second-straight game with a home run, and he is now two shy of his career high of 25, which he recorded last season.

“I mean that’s common every year, that guys that participate…” Molitor said before trailing off. “He’s gotten off to a decent start. He didn’t have a real productive series in Houston, but obviously a couple big hits in this series for us.”

Jose Berrios scuffled early on, walking Didi Gregorius and Austin Romine in the second inning, but he settled in and only allowed one run — an RBI single to leadoff hitter Brett Gardner in the seventh. He did hit Jacoby Ellsbury and Austin Romine in the sixth and seventh inning, respectively, however.

“Jose, he had a much better day,” Molitor said, referring to his 1.2 inning effort in Houston during his last start. “It didn’t really start out that way. I think that you could see some of the frustration, some of the pitches he was making there through the first inning-plus.”

Molitor credited pitching coach Neil Allen for settling Berrios down in the second inning, which allowed him to nearly complete seven innings against a dangerous New York lineup.

“It’s one of those things where you’re working on your mechanics in-between starts, and you overthink it when you get out on the mound, and you forget that you’re a major league pitcher,” said Molitor.

“He got back on track. He looked like a different guy with the lead, and we weren’t able to add on, but the pitching held up and we were able to come away with a series win.”

The Twins are now one game back of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central and a half game back of the Yankees for the second Wild Card spot.

“It’s an enjoyable time,” said Molitor. “There’s a lot of baseball to be played, but you can feel the intensity around the league and the game with moves and potential moves and rumors and it’s just kind of part of baseball’s vision of how this double wild card scenarios would unfold — you get more teams involved and it’s fun.

“It’s fun to see the trades, and see what’s going on. We’re still kind of in that hold mode to kinda see where we go here over the next couple weeks.”

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