Phil Hughes Wins In Return To New York Thanks To Minnesota Twins Ninth Inning Rally

Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The first time through the batting order, Phil Hughes had nearly a perfect outing against his former team. The only blemish was the former Yankee giving up his first walk since April 20 to Brian McCann, but then the Phil Hughes that Yankee Stadium is accustomed to came out to play in the fourth inning, at least for a little while.

Going into the fourth, Hughes was pitching with a 1-0 lead via a Trevor Plouffe RBI single in the top of the 3rd and had not yet surrendered a hit. A mini hit parade for the Bronx Bombers was about to start though.

The fourth started with a Brett Gardener triple, a Derek Jeter RBI single, a Jacoby Ellsbury single, another Brian McCann walk until Solarte popped out to short to get the first out of the inning. Ichiro hit a sac-fly to center to give the Yankees the 2-1 lead over their former teammate.

After that Hughes was incredibly strong putting down the last fifteen batters he faced and pitched eight innings on the road in a stadium that usually owned him. Hughes pitched as good as you can ask for, but the Twins offense didn’t totally cooperate with him while he was on the mound.

The Minnesota Twins couldn’t get much going against Yankees starter Chase Whitley despite chasing him after five innings of work. Whitley gave up five hits and notched six strikeouts in his one-run outing. If the Twins couldn’t get much going against Whitely, they couldn’t touch reliever Dellin Betances who K’d five of the six batters he face. Betances only threw four balls in his two innings of work that only took 22 pitches.

Once Betances got out of the game, the Twins started to find some offense. Adam Warren give up a hit in his inning of work in the eight. So did David Robertson in his ninth inning, except the Robertson gave up more than just a hit, he gave up five runs. Robertson gave up a leadoff homer in the inning to Josh Willingham to tie the game at two and get Hughes off the hook for a loss that was nowhere near a deserved loss. Then Brian Dozier gave Hughes the win.

With two outs in the ninth, Dozier was up with men on first and second and received a high fastball from Robertson that was promptly driven down the right field line for an RBI double. Dozier knocked Robertson out of the game forcing Yankee manager Joe Girardi to turn to Matt Daley.

Daley was forced to face the other ex-Yankee on the Twins roster, Eduardo Nunez. Nunez then also doubled down the right field line scoring two giving the Twins a 5-2 lead. Matt Thorton was then put in the game and gave up an RBI single to Oswaldo Arcia giving the Twins the 7-2 lead. The Twins scored a total of six runs in the ninth inning in which they batted ten guys.

Caleb Thielbar came into the game in the ninth to close out the game for the Twins.

Trevor Plouffe, Eduardo Nunez and Brian Dozier all recorded doubles in the game. Willingham, Plouffe and Dozier all recorded an RBI in the game. Nunez and Arcia recorded two RBI.

The Twins start a home and home set with the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday in Milwaukee.