Alex Rodriguez broke the hearts of the Twins in the seventh inning as once again, the New York Yankees beat the Twins 8-4 Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
With the Twins holding a 4-1 lead, Twins reliever Ryan O’Rourke loaded the bases when he walked Brett Gardner, bringing Rodriguez to the plate.
And A-Rod made the Twins pay as he smacked a game-changing and perhaps season-changing grand slam off Twins reliever J.R. Graham (0-1).
A-Rod's 25th grand slam. Extends his all-time record
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) August 19, 2015
New York added three more insurance runs in the eighth to put the game away off Graham.
It was the second night in a row the Twins left a lead to their bullpen only to come up with the loss.
Following a two-run homer from Miguel Sano and an RBI single from Shane Robinson in the top of the seventh, the Twins had built the three-run lead.
But all of that changed in the bottom of the inning thanks to Rodriguez.
Mike Pelfrey held the Yankees to one run on five hits in 5 1/3 innings. But O’Rourke and Graham combined to surrender seven runs in just two combined innings.
Nick Rumbelow (1-0) pitched just 1/3 of an inning in relief of C.C. Sabathia to get the victory.
Ervin Santana (2-3) will try and salvage a game in the series on Wednesday against Nathan Eovaldi (12-2).
