Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
The New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins played a real slobberknocker Tuesday night, with the Yankees outlasting Minnesota (again) to keep their postseason alive. New York's starting pitcher Luis Severino lasted a third of an inning, and the offense and the bullpen had to pick up the slack. Instead of a traditional recap, we're going to use pictures to tell the story of the game.First inning, literally the fifth pitch of the game, Brian Dozier hits a home run.OK, whatever, no big deal. Doesn't look so bad to start. I mean, it could be worse, right? Just Some opening-night jitters. Severino got it out of his system, at least.Three batters later, Eddie Rosario hits a two-run home run to make it 3-0.Brad Penner-USA TODAY SportsChad Green enters the game and retires the Twins for the inning. The Yankees immediately get going in the home half of the first with Brett Gardner working a walk and Aaron Judge singling to center.Didi Gregorius steps to the plate with one out and two on and ties the game with a home run. The universe once again makes sense.Brad Penner-USA TODAY SportsThe Yankees take the lead in the second inning on a Brett Gardner homer. At this point, the game has been going on for something like six hours. Then the Twins come storming back in the third and load the bases, forcing the second pitching change of the game for the Yankees.It is, to repeat, the third inning.It's a nail-biter until the fourth inning—my God, this thing is still going—when Aaron Judge hits a two-run home run to make it 7-5.Mercifully, the pace starts to pick up after that and the game is cruising along right until the seventh inning, when Gary Sanchez's testicles are nearly removed from his body by a foul tip. Out of respect for Gary, we are not going to show the gruesome footage of baseball striking human ball here because we're above that sort of thing and it's really tough to watch (kind of like that first inning, ya know?).Here's a good baseball dog instead.The Yankees bullpen would shut the Twins down for the rest of the game. Robertson was in hero mode and struck out five over three and one-third innings before making way for Tommy Kahnle and Aroldis Chapman to close it out.Yankees win 8-4.
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Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild already visited the mound before the home run—always a reassuring thing in the first inning of a do-or-die game. After the home run, Severino promptly gives up a single and a double.3-0, two men on, one out, in the first inning, and your pitcher gets the hook.
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