MINNEAPOLIS – Epic.
Even that word doesn’t put the Tuesday night/Wednesday morning happenings at Target Field into perspective.
Let’s turn it up a notch: Homeric.
In what is becoming a most magical season, the Yankees played a magical game, beating the Twins 14-12 in 10 video game-like action-packed innings in a contest that took five hours and three minutes to play and left players and fans drained.
“That’s one of those games for being late July, we’ll probably be talking about for a long time,” Aaron Boone said.
That doesn’t begin to tell the story.
Every second was a roller-coaster ride. If you went to bed early here is just part of what you missed. The Yankees produced 20 hits, the Twins 15.
Even with 26 runs scored, 23 more runners were left on base, 13 by the Twins, 10 by the Yankees. In the final three innings the Yankees scored nine runs to climb out of 8-2 and 9-5 holes but still had to grasp and claw to hang on for dear life on the edge of the cliff.
Didi Gregorius went 5-for-5, drove in seven runs and wasn’t even the hero of the game. Gleyber Torres knocked in the winning run with a 10th-inning single and was an afterthought.
Like most superheroes, the hero of this game showed he could fly.
Aaron Hicks, a former Twin, crushed a two-out, two-run home run in the ninth that briefly put the Yankees ahead, 12-11, but then Twins tied it in the bottom of the ninth when Aroldis Chapman could not throw a strike. The Yankees went ahead in the 10th on Torres’ hit to right-center and a wild pitch that scored Austin Romine.
Hicks then made the catch of his life for the final out to save the game in the bottom of the inning, leaving the crowd of 32,470 standing in shocked disbelief.
“Do or die,” Hicks called the play. “It was a great game by both sides, probably one of the most fun games I have ever played. There were so many lead changes, just a lot happening.”
Like five lead changes or ties in the final three innings alone.
After Adam Ottavino also walked three batters like Chapman did, with two outs, Chad Green was summoned by Boone to face Max Kepler, who smoked a ball into right-center, a shot that had game-winning double written all over it.
Hicks, seeing where the catcher Romine had set up on the outer half against the lefty swinging Kepler, was anticipating a ball to be hit to left-center even though he was shaded to right-center.
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That littlest adjustment in a game of big hits and big plays proved to be the difference.
That is what makes baseball so special. The game produced six home runs and 10 doubles but a slice of baseball anticipation made all the difference against the slicing drive by Kepler.
Hicks had to sell out. He hit the warning track with such force his chest and face pounded into the dirt.
When I asked Boone if Hicks was OK after the catch, the manager smiled and said, “Yeah, got his cape off and was good to go.”
On the mound, Green said, “I just threw my arm up. I’m not a pitcher to show much emotion and that is the most emotion you will ever get out of me.”
Gregorius said, “It was the best catch to end the game. That’s pretty good to go that range and catch it, big situation, everything could have happened if that ball would have dropped right there.”
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The Twins would have celebrated an amazing 15-14 victory. But it was the Yankees who celebrated wildly.
The night was filled with emotion.
Did we mention the Yankees scored five runs in the eighth with fly balls bouncing off the high wall in right to grab a 10-9 lead? And then in the bottom of the inning massive Miguel Sano hit his second home run of the night, a 457-foot blast off Zack Britton to put the Twins back on top, 11-10, setting the stage for Hicks go-ahead home run in the ninth.
Got all that? Also Gary Sanchez injured his groin and went on the IL Wednesday.
If this were a postseason game it would be an instant classic.
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Thirty minutes after the game the Yankees clubhouse was still buzzing with excitement and music as “Backin’ It Up” by Pardison Fontaine played.
The Yankees are backing it up. Big expectations. Big hits. Big plays.
Aaron Judge put the night into perspective and the Yankees, too.
“Who wants it more? Who is going to step up and deliver the big hit for us? Guy after guy did that,” said Judge, who delivered three hits and two doubles. “That’s what championship teams are made of.”
This incredible superhero game is what championship seasons and memories are made of too. Homeric.