The New York Yankees start off a long road trip with a win in Minnesota

The New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night.  The game took place at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the final score was 7-4 Yankees.  Masahiro Tanaka started and didn't pitch his best but was still able to secure his league leading 12th win of the season.  The Yankees bats broke out in a big way including Zelous Wheeler having his first two career hits including his first career homerun.  Carlos Beltran had a big three run homerun. 

Tanaka pitched seven innings giving up four runs on nine hits.  He didn't walk a batter and struck out three.  Dellin Betances pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts and David Robertson picked up his 19th save of the season pitching a scoreless inning and giving up a walk.  He struck out the side. 

Phil Hughes lost his fifth game of the season pitching 6 1/3 innings and giving up eight hits and seven runs.  He walked one and struck out six.  Brian Duensing pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and Anthony Swarzak pitched two innings giving up one hit and striking out two. 

Brett Gardner had a hit and an RBI, Derek Jeter had an RBI and Mark Teixeira had two hits.  Brian McCann had a hit, Beltran had a hit and three RBI and Ichiro Suzuki had two hits and drew a walk.  Wheeler had two hits and an RBI and Brendan Ryan had a hit and an RBI.  Ryan hit a double and Beltran and Wheeler each hit a homerun.  The Yankees were 3-4 with runners in scoring position and left two men on base.  Suzuki had an outfield assist. 

Brian Dozier had two hits, Kurt Suzuki had a hit and an RBI and Chris Parmelee had a hit and an RBI.  Kendrys Morales had an RBI, Oswaldo Arcia had a hit and drew a walk and Trevor Plouffe had a hit.  Eduardo Escobar had a hit and an RBI, Sam Fuld had two hits.  Parmelee, Suzuki, Plouffe each hit a double and the Twins were 1-6 with runners in scoring position and left three men on base. 

Parmelee hit an RBI double in the first to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.   In the third Suzuki hit an RBI groundout to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  The Yankees came roaring back in the fifth with a three run homerun by Beltran and a solo homerun by Wheeler to take a 4-2 lead.  The Twins cut it to a one run game in the sixth on a Morales RBI groundout.  The Yankees took control of the game in the seventh with three runs to take a 7-3 lead.  Ryan hit an RBI double, Gardner an RBI single and Jeter an RBI groundout.  The Twins would score one more run in the seventh.  Escobar hit an RBI single but the final score would be 7-4 Yankees.  The two teams will play game two of their four game series on Friday afternoon.