Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner Lifts Yankees To 8-4 AL Wild Card Win Vs Twins

by Pablo MenaOctober 4, 2017, 11:30 amDaily Digest, News >

Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner and Did Gregorius all homered to propel the New York Yankees to an 8-4 home victory over the Minnesota Twins in Tuesday night’s American League Wild Card Game.

Yankees vs. Twins AL Wild Card Game Score

The Yankees will now visit the Cleveland Indians on Thursday for the first of a four-game AL Division Series.

The Twins are no stranger to losing to the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs, according to ESPN:

Luis Severino, who had up until recently been on a hot streak, struggled on Tuesday. The starter recorded just one out in his postseason debut, and allowed three runs, four hits — two of which were home runs to Brian Dozier and Eddie Rosario — and one walk.

Twins starter Ervin Santana didn’t fare well either in his third career playoff start. He lasted only two innings and allowed a walk, single and a homer from Gregorius in the first three at-bats, as well as a solo shot to Gardner in the second.

New York’s bullpen managed to recover from Severino’s mistakes. Chad Green, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle and Aroldis Chapman combined to allow one run and five hits while striking out 13 in 8.2 strong innings.

Greg Bird’s RBI single in the third off Jose Berrios (three runs in three innings) gave the Bombers the permanent lead. Judge’s two-run blast in the subsequent inning provided insurance.

Green allowed one run and struck out four in two innings, while Kahnle induced a fly-out from Joe Mauer with two runners on to avoid the sixth and tossed a scoreless seventh and eighth.

The Yankees will now visit the Indians on Thursday at 7:38 pm EST. Cleveland fell to the Chicago Cubs in seven games in last year’s World Series, but rebounded with the second-best record in MLB in 2017 at 102-60.

The Indians defeated the Yankees in five of the seven contests between the two teams this season. The Bombers have not named a starter for Game 1, while the Indians will likely start right-hander Trevor Bauer (17-9, 41.19 ERA), who is coming off the best regular season of his career with career highs in victories (17) and strikeouts (196). Thursday’s game will air on FS1, according to MLB.com.

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 03: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees slides safe to third base after an error by Minnesota Twins during the seventh inning in the American League Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium on October 3, 2017 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)