After the Twins hit three consecutive home runs off Nathan Eovaldi to take a five-run lead on the Yankees in the sixth inning Sunday, the only question left was when, if ever, the Yankees would get a baserunner against Minnesota starter Tyler Duffey.
Not familiar with Tyler Duffey? Neither were the Yankees. Duffey is the guy with a 6.18 ERA who threw 5 2⁄3 perfect innings before Aaron Hicks doubled into the rightfield corner to end that drama.
Duffey went on to allow one run on two hits in eight innings as the Twins — the team with the worst record in baseball at 24-51 — dropped the Yankees back to .500 at 37-37 with a 7-1 victory before 38,673 at Yankee Stadium.
Duffey (3-6) is a 25-year-old righthander who baffled the Yankees with a low-90s fastball and darting breaking pitches. Before Sunday, batters had a .311 average against him. The Yankees were 2-for-26 against Duffey and didn’t score until Mark Teixeira’s leadoff homer in the eighth.
After the home run, Duffey struck out the side to give him eight for the day. He did not walk a batter.
The Twins, who were 10th in the AL and 20th in MLB in home runs coming into the day, hit six, including four off Eovaldi.
Eovaldi (6-5) was nearly as effective as Duffey until he allowed three home runs in a row in the sixth. The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the third when No. 9 hitter Danny Salazar hit his second home run of the season.
The Yankees had faced a similar game pattern on Saturday — trailing 1-0 entering the middle innings and then eking out a 2-1 victory with the help of their super bullpen trio. The trio may have been wholly or partially unavailable Sunday because of recent workloads, but if Eovaldi kept the game close you had to like the Yankees’ chances for the sweep.
Eovaldi did not keep the game close. He walked Joe Mauer on a 100-mph 3-and-2 pitch with two outs in the sixth before Brian Dozier homered to left for a 3-0 Twins lead.
Trevor Plouffe followed with a homer to left and Max Kepler made it 5-0 with a line drive shot to right. As the boos rained down, Eovaldi got the final out of the inning, earning him sarcastic cheers from the fed-up crowd.
Eovaldi’s outing ended a miserable June for the pitcher the Yankees had hoped was turning a corner into a potential ace. He went 0-3 with an 8.65 ERA by allowing 25 earned runs in 26 innings and saw his season ERA go from 3.71 to 5.19.
Luis Cessa, recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre earlier in the day, gave up Minnesota’s fifth home run, a solo shot to former Yankee Eduardo Nuñez in the seventh.
Juan Centeno homered off Tyler Yates in the ninth.
..... - Newsday