Minnesota Twins Fall To New York Yankees In Series Opener

Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The holiday weekend series didn’t get off to the start that the Minnesota Twins desired on Thursday night which probably isn’t a huge shock. The four-game set Fourth of July/Derek Jeter sendoff festival started with a Bronx Bomber victory.

The Twins once upon a time had a lead in the ballgame, in fact they lead 2-0 going into the 5th inning, but then the Yankees went home run derby on ex-Yankee Phil Hughes. In that inning Carlos Beltran hit a three-run homer to give the Yankees the lead and then two batters later Zelous Wheeler hit a solo shot of his own.

New York scored another three runs in the seventh. The Twins added a couple more runs throughout the game, but could never put together more than a run an inning eventually leading to a 7-4 Yankee victory.

Phil Hughes did not pitch like what Twins fans have come to expect. Hughes went 6.1 innings and gave up seven runs in his 101 pitch outing. Masahiro Tanaka took the mound for the Yankees and gave up four runs in seven innings on only 85 pitches thrown.

Not a great offensive day for the Twins up and down the order. Brian Dozier and Sam Fuld both notched two hits on the game. RBIs were spread out evenly to Kurt Suzuki, Chris Parmelee, Kendrys Morales and Eduardo Escobar.

Boxscore is right here.