Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins opened a four-game weekend series, and that's usually good news for the Bombers. Since 2002, the Yankees are an incredible 114-40 against the Twins, including 16-2 in the postseason. That's a 120-win pace and the best record any team has against any other team during that time.
New York's dominance did not continue Thursday night. Not at all. The Twins jumped out to a 9-0 lead -- 9-0! -- in the first inning against rookie righty Jhony Brito. Twins second baseman Edouard Julien led off the game with a single for his first MLB hit. Later in the inning he hit his first career home run, in the middle of back-to-back-to-back homers with Michael Taylor and Carlos Correa.
Here is all the carnage of the first inning (GameTracker):
Julien is the first player to record his first two career hits in the same inning since catcher Aramis Garcia, then with the San Francisco Giants, on Aug. 31, 2018. Garcia hit a home run and then singled in the eighth inning against the New York Mets that night.
This is the first time the Yankees have allowed nine runs in the first inning since June 18, 2000, against the Chicago White Sox. Brito was charged with seven runs in only two-thirds of an inning. He allowed one run in 10 innings in his first two starts combined, and his ERA ballooned from 0.90 to 6.75 on Thursday.
"Just looked like a lot of pitches up and out over the plate," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about Brito's outing after the game (video). "Just struggling a little bit with -- seemed like it was ball one too much, behind in the count, leaving his sinker elevated too much. So, just, yeah, obviously a rough night."
All told, Minnesota sent 13 men to the plate in the first inning -- cleanup hitter Trevor Larnach made the first and third outs of the inning -- and scored their nine runs on two singles, three doubles, three homers, one walk, and one sacrifice fly.
The Twins held up their early lead to win 11-2, putting them at 9-4 on the season and sending the Yankees to 8-5.
