Minnesota Twins: Early Outburst Lead Yankees

Things haven’t been easy as of late for the Minnesota Twins. Whenever it seems like they may be taking a step forward, they’ll follow it up by seemingly taking two steps back.

Adding onto the recent injury news regarding Glen Perkins and the demotion of Oswaldo Arcia, the Minnesota Twins (20-47) headed into the weekend with a pair of losses to the New York Yankees (33-34), including Friday’s 8-2 drubbing.

Starter Pat Dean looked as though he was figuring things out as a starter after struggling a few games prior but he got hit hard, exiting after just 2 1/3 innings, allowing seven earned runs while walking three.

The Yankees flexed their offensive muscles, taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning behind a big home run to left by Carlos Beltran.

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From there, it was easy riding for Masahiro Tanaka as he pitched eight strong innings, allowing one run, seven hits, no walks and collecting five strikeouts.

The Yankees got all eight runs within the first four innings but that was all that would be needed.

For the Twins, it was Max Kepler’s RBI groundout in the second and Eduardo Escobar’s 10-pitch, solo home run in the garbage time of the ninth inning that would account for the team’s two runs.

With the loss, this marks the Minnesota Twins’ seventh loss in their last 10 games. Once again, the pitching struggled and the offense could not get anything started, a common trend that has plagued the Twins all season.

43. 2. 2. Final. 8

. Eduardo Escobar. OFFENSE . D. 9 hits, 0 walk, 5 strikeouts, 1 home run. Eduardo Escobar was essentially the offense as he accounted for the only two extra base hits for the Twins. He doubled in the second, singled in the fourth and homered in the ninth, coming up just a triple shy of the cycle. Max Kepler drove in the Minnesota Twins’ only other run off an RBI groundout.

. Pat Dean. STARTER . F. Totals: 8 hits allowed, 3 walk and 0 strikeouts. Did Pat Dean ever bomb tonight. Easily his worst start of his young major league career, Dean has struggled mightily after showing some signs of promise following his promotion to the starting rotation.

. Taylor Rogers. RELIEVERS . A-. 6 2/3 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts. A very solid performance considering the circumstances, the bullpen was called upon earlier than the Minnesota Twins would have liked. <a href=

DEFENSE . A. No errors, a clean game overall for the Minnesota Twins.. .

MVT: Eduardo Escobar

The Minnesota Twins will look to bounce back and try for at least a tie of the series. In order to do so, they’ll need to win Saturday and Sunday’s game. Ricky Nolasco (3-4, 5.12) will try to build off his solid start against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday. For New York, Michael Pineda (3-7, 5.88) will take the mound.

In related Twins news, it was recently determined closer Glen Perkins will be out the rest of the season following shoulder surgery, meaning unless things change, the team will probably continue to go with a closer-by-committee type philosophy.

The team also announced its decision to designate Oswaldo Arcia for assignment. Much was made about Arcia’s early season success as he changed up his approach to the plate and came up with some big clutch hits for the Minnesota Twins.

However, a log jam in the outfield with young talent such as Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler and the recent emergence of Robbie Grossman did not make it easy for Arcia to find playing time or at-bats.

Arcia could potentially move to Triple-A but it seems more likely a team would put in a waiver claim and pick him up as Arcia does have a lot of power potential that could help a team in need of a corner outfielder.

Next: Twins MiLB Weekly

The move was a corresponding move to bring Danny Santana back from the Disabled List.

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