Things unraveled quickly for Pat Dean (1-3) on Friday night in an 8-2 loss to the New York Yankees at Target Field. So quickly and severely that the rookie left-hander was sent back to Triple-A Rochester after the game.
Dean allowed as many earned runs as he recorded outs — seven of each — and it started from the get-go, as Jacoby Ellsbury singled and Rob Refsnyder doubled to left-center to get the game underway. Carlos Beltran followed with a 419-foot home run to left field, and Dean was in a 3-0 hole just 12 pitches into the game. Dean got Alex Rodriguez on a nice bare-hand play from Trevor Plouffe at third for the first out, but that was followed by a Starlin Castro walk, a Chase Headley double off the right field fence, and an infield single from Didi Gregorius that plated the Castro with the fourth run. Dean followed a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Andrew Romine to end the inning.
Aaron Hicks led off the second with a single, but was erased on a 4-6-3 double play off the bat of Ellsbury as Dean had a relatively quiet second inning, though Refsnyder reached on a walk before Dean induced a Beltran grounder to short.
The Twins broke through for a run in the second against Masahiro Tanaka (4-2) as Trevor Plouffe led the inning off with a single. Eduardo Escobar followed that with a double high off the fence — missing a home run by mere feet — which put runners on second and third with nobody out. A Max Kepler grounder to second scored Plouffe, but Escobar was stranded at third as Kurt Suzuki struck out swinging and Byron Buxton popped foul to first.
That was the last the Twins would score until the ninth inning, as Tanaka kept them off balance all night with eight strong innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts and zero walks.
The Yankees returned fire with another crooked number in the third, as Rodriguez and Castro each singled to open the inning. Headley followed with a walk, and the bases were loaded with nobody out. It looked as though Dean had induced another groundball double play off the bat of Gregorius, but Didi beat the return throw as Rodriguez scored. That ended the day for Dean, as Neil Ramirez entered to face Romine.
At that point, Romine was the only Yankees hitter without a hit, as every single New York player had one hit to that point. Romine quickly remedied that, as he poked a deep double to left center to score Gregorius — who had stolen second one pitch earlier — and Castro for a 7-1 Yankees lead.
The Yankees added a single tally in the fourth — their final run of the night — as Refsnyder singled to left and took third as Beltran followed that with a single that snuck past a diving Joe Mauer and Brian Dozier. Refsnyder came home on a sacrifice fly to center off the bat of Castro, and that gave the Yankees an 8-1 lead.
The Twins bullpen settled in after that, as Taylor Rogers, Kevin Jepsen, Buddy Boshers and Michael Tonkin combined for five scoreless innings. The bunch allowed three hits and a pair of walks and struck out one batter, as the Twins on the whole struck out just two total on the night.
Escobar added a run in the ninth off Yankees reliever Nick Goody, as he hit a 2-2 pitch 366 feet into the right field seats to close the scoring at 8-2.
Following the game, the Twins announced they were sending Dean back to Triple-A Rochester, and would purchase the contract of pitcher Tommy Milone. Milone — who had compiled a 1.66 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 41-4 K/BB ratio in 48.2 innings since being outrighted to Rochester — has not pitched since Tuesday, and will be available out of the bullpen over the weekend before slotting back into the rotation late next week, manager Paul Molitor said after the game.
With Milone, the Twins are at a full 40-man roster after Oswaldo Arcia was designated for assignment following Thursday’s game.
