Bird goes deep twice as Yankees complete sweep of Twins

I’ll be posting analysis, observations and general missives throughout the game.

With his team trailing 3-2 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Bird launched a 1-0 fastball from Ervin Santana into an empty bullpen in right center field for a two-run shot (2) to give the Yankees the lead for good.

The Twins were held hit-less, walk-less, witless, hopeless and hapless through 5 innings. He struck out 8 Minnesota batters, primarily relying on 100 miles per hour heat and good secondary pitches like his splitter and curve ball. In a span of seven batters, Eovaldi went from a ideal game to falling behind 3-2. Eovaldi retired four more hitters before losing his perfect-game bid on a bloop single into shallow left field by Minnesota catcher Chris Herrmann. That started the Twins’ only rally of the ball game.

Greg Bird is not Mark Teixeira and only a fool would make that comparison. He walked two, struck out six, and served up both of Bird’s home runs. “A home run feels great, a grand slam feels pretty awesome, especially to do it late and help us win a game”.

The rousing reaction of the fans led to a curtain call. Chase Headley has gotten on base safely in 24 of his last 25 games. Hicks appeared to land on top of the first base bag somewhat awkwardly and as he ran past the base, he did a few hops and appeared to be in minor pain. Prior to being called up on August 13, the 22-year-old first baseman was hitting.301/.353/.500 with six homers in 34 games for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre. Before the sixth inning concluded, he surrendered three runs, four hits and two walks. It was his best start in almost a month, although that’s a low bar to clear because his previous four outings should have been graded “Needs Improvement”.

Eovaldi had a lot of things going on in today’s game. The 120 pitches were a season-high for Eovaldi, who is two victories away from tying his career total coming into the season. He received a cortisone injection to deal with a lingering neck issue that has bothered the all-star closer since before the all-star break.

The Yankees won their 11th game in the last 15.