The New York Yankees (12-9) started their home series against the Minnesota Twins (8-9) with a 14-1 win. Especially Giancarlo Stanton, who recently had to fight at Yankee Stadium, showed a gala performance while a rookie entered his name in the history books.
After the Yankees had already made three runs in the first inning, rookie Miguel Andujar hammered a home run onto the stands in Left Field. This means he scored an extra basehit in the seventh game in a row, making him only the third player to do so before his 24th birthday, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The other two? Yankee legends Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.
“It is a great honour. I’m very happy about that,” Andujar commented on the performance. “The fact that my name is mentioned in one sentence with these boys means a lot to me. And now we want to continue there and beat again.”
In the fifth inning Giancarlo Stanton was happy about a monster Homun – according to Statcast the shot had an exit velocity of 115.7 MPH with a launch angle of 29 degrees and it flew 435 feet. Altogether Stanton was 4-4 with three runs, two RBI and one walk.
“We’ll hurt you from 1 to 9,” Stanton said after the game, “Once we all click, it’ll be fun.”
Tyler Austin and Didi Gregorius also hit home runs, Gregorius’ was even a Grand Slam in the eighth inning. In addition, Top-Prospect Gleybar Torres enjoyed his first hit in the MLB – a single in the eighth inning. After that he scored his first run.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka meanwhile cruised through 6 2/3 innings and only gave three hits and one run. His opponent, Jake Odorizzi, however, only managed 4 2/3 innings and took five runs (5 H, 3 BB).
“I commanded my fastball well today,” Tanaka told reporters. “I think it was better than any game this season. With that as a basis, I could use my splitter and slider as off-speed pitches.”
Max Kepler, on the other hand, created a double and played 1-4.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.