The Yankees missed a golden opportunity to gain an even bigger lead over the Baltimore Orioles tonight. The O’s dropped a game to the Blue Jays while the Yankees and Twins were still in progress at Target Field.
In fact, the Yankees were leading the game when the Orioles lost so it seemed like they’d finish the night with a two and half game lead in the AL East.
Nope.
After Russell Martin hit a solo shot to put the Yankees up in the top of the seventh inning, Phil Hughes who had been pitching a pretty solid game, came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh.
The Twins led off the inning with a Ryan Doumit single followed by a Chris Parmalee walk. Hughes was able to get Trevor Plouffe to pop out for the first out but that was followed by another single by Jamey Carroll. With the bases loaded and one out, Hughes was able to get Pedro Florimon to strike out.
Joe Girardi took Hughes out of the game because he was running out of gas and called upon Boone Logan to get one guy out.
He didn’t do that.
Logan started things off with a wild pitch which scored Doumit from third. Then followed that up by giving up a double to Denard Span – who Hughes had retired in every at bat leading up to the seventh inning. Parmalee and Carroll both scored and the Twins went up 4-3.
Oh, but it wasn’t over and Logan wasn’t taken out of the game.
The next thing Logan did was walk Ben Revere.
Seriously, Boone? Just one out. One. Uno. One single out.
So, in strides Joe Mauer, who after looking at two balls and one strike, belts a single to right field which scores Span and puts the Twins up 5-3.
Logan is still out there. Yankee fans are apoplectic. And he finally gets an out, Justin Morneau popped out to Martin in foul territory.
The damage was done. The Yankees went from being up 3-1 and on their way to what seemed like a sure victory because they’ve pretty much owned the Minnesota Twins for the past decade, to a sure loss.
Ben Kabak from River Avenue Blues tweeted this about Logan after the seventh inning finally ended: Logan with 15 walks over his last 25.1 IP. 4.97 ERA since July 2.
Yikes.
I realize that Hughes was the one who put all of those guys on in the first place but the LOOGY – Logan – is supposed to be able to come in and get the one lefty he’s going to face, out. And where the heck was Clay Rapada??
The Yankees were able to score one run in the top of the ninth off the bat of pinch hitter Andruw Jones who hit a solo shot to left. Jayson Nix followed that up with a strike out to end the game.
Hughes was looking for win #17 on the year, instead he got saddled with loss #13. His line was 6.2 IP, 6H, 4ER, 4R, 1BB, 4K and he didn’t give up any home runs.
Some facts:
- Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to 19 games
- Russell Martin‘s home run was his 19th of the season – ties a career high (2007)
- Nick Swisher hit his 24th hone run of the season off Twins starter Esmerling Vasquez
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One Response to Yanks Blow An Opportunity to Extend East Lead, Drop One To The Twins
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TIQ IQ
I wish they would somehow incorporate allowing inherited runners to score, with ERA, Which is a much better reflection of a reliever’s Performance. At 25%, Logan Has allowed twice as many inherited runners to score As Rapada at around 12% (Eppley Is also around 12%). Does Joe take this into account in Deciding who to bring in? I mean, come on, it relievers real job is to not allow any more runs to score Yet there is nothing in the normal stats They can point the finger of shame at relievers like Logan.