MINNESOTA TWINS 7, NEW YORK YANKEES 2 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Sunday, June 1, 2014.

Batting stars:  Trevor Plouffe! was 2-for-4 with a double.  Oswaldo Arcia was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.  Josh Willingham hit a home run, his third.

Pitching stars:  Phil Hughes pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on three hits and two walks and striking out six.  Caleb Thielbar pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Chase Whitley struck out six in five innings, giving up one run on five hits.  Dellin Betances struck out five in two perfect innings.  

The game:  Oswaldo Arcia led off the second with a single and Josh Willingham was hit by a pitch, but the Twins were unable to score.  In the third, however, Aaron Hicks singled, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a Trevor Plouffe! single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.

The lead lasted until the fourth.  New York got all of their hits for the game in the first three batters of the fourth inning.  Brett Gardner tripled and Derek Jeter singled to tie the score.  Jacoby Ellsbury followed with another single.  Brian McCann walked to load the bases, with still none out.  The next three batters went out, but one of them hit a sacrifice fly, putting the Yankees ahead 2-1.

It looked like it would stay there, as the Twins got only two hits in innings five through eight.  But then came the ninth.  Josh Willingham led off with a home run to tie the game at two.  Jason Kubel struck out, but Kurt Suzuki walked.  Eduardo Escobar struck out, but Aaron Hicks walked.  Brian Dozier then came through with an RBI double, giving the Twins a 3-2 lead.  Joe Mauer was intentionally walked, but Eduardo Nunez hit a two-run double to make it 5-2.  Oswaldo Arcia hit a two-run single, and the Twins had a six-run ninth to take a 7-2 lead.  Caleb Theilbar slammed the door in the bottom of the ninth, the Twins won, and there was great rejoicing.

WP:  Phil Hughes (6-1).

LP:  David Robertson (0-2).

S:  None.

Notes:  Jason Kubel was in left field.  Josh Willingham played the most games there (53), with Kubel second at 36, followed by Jordan Schafer (34).  Aaron Hicks was in center.  Danny Santana played the most games there (69), with Hicks second at 57, followed by Sam Fuld (40).  Willingham was the DH.  Kennys Vargas played the most games there (40), with Kendrys Morales second at 26, followed by Josmil Pinto (21).

Eduardo Escobar was batting .317.  He would finish at .275.

Yangervis Solarte was the third baseman for the Yankees, going 0-for-3.  He was in the Twins’ farm system from 2006-2011.

2014 was the best season Phil Hughes had.  He went 16-10, 3.52, 1.13 WHIP and led the league in fewest walks per nine and strikeout/walk ratio.  He was decent in 2015, then would battle injuries and would never have a good season again.

This was the last season for Josh Willingham.  He would be traded to Kansas City in mid-August, finishing the season there.

Chase Whitley entered the Yankees rotation in mid-May.  He made seven really good starts and had an ERA of 2.56 in mid-June.  Then the roof fell in.  He was out of the rotation by late July and ended the year with an ERA of 5.23.  He would make just five more major league starts after that.  He would, however, have a decent year in the Tampa Bay bullpen in 2017.

The Yankees had Ichiro Suzuki in right field and the Twins had Kurt Suzuki behind the plate.  This ties the all-time record for most Suzukis in one game.

Record:  New York was 29-26, in second place in the AL East, 3.5 games behind Toronto.  They would finish 84-78, in second place, twelve games behind Baltimore.

The Twins were 26-28, in third place in the AL Central, 5.5 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 70-92, in fifth (last) place, twenty games behind Detroit.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 33-39 (.458).