No matter what names aren’t on the back of Yankee uniforms, the Twins seem to be 0-for-the-21st century against New York, and Thursday afternoon was no different, with Minnesota falling 9-5 at Target Field.
New York was dominant in the four-game stand, collecting 41 hits, 14 of them for extra bases.
Minnesota has dropped its last five, and is 2-8 in the last 10 games, to fall to 36-46 one game past the halfway point of the season.
Rookie Kyle Gibson, who won in his major-league debut against Kansas City Saturday, gave up eight runs and 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings against New York. As Phil Miller of the Star Tribune reports, the Yankees, who host Minnesota next weekend, have already clinched the season series for the seventh straight year; the Twins are now 3-11 against them in Target Field.
Brutal.
The Twins essentially played half a game on Thursday, with the Yankees scoring three runs in the 1st on a single by Vernon Wells and a sacrifice fly by Robinson Cano. In the 3rd inning, Wells struck again with a double and Luis Cruz singled to score Wells, putting the Yankees up early 5-0.
Ichiro Suzuki – a Twins killer long before he donned the Yankee pinstripes – led off the game with a double, and he added a single and two-run triple on the day, finishing a home run short of the cycle. His double started a three-run first inning for Gibson, who fell to 1-1 with a 7.94 ERA.
Justin Morneau hit two home runs, including a solo shot in the 4th and a two-run homer in the 8th, but the game was well out of reach by then. Pedro Florimon and Aaron Hicks also collected two hits apiece.
Getting out of town isn’t enough for the Twins, they’re actually leaving the country, heading to Canada to start a three-game series Friday in Toronto.
