The New York Yankees were all ready to settle into their nine-game homestand with a traditional clubbing of the visiting Minnesota Twins on Thursday night.
Surprise!
The Twins broke out of years of frustration against the Yankees by pasting a nine-run first inning on their hosts, chasing rookie starting pitcher Jhony Brito after just two-thirds of an inning.
Brito's final line in his 34-pitch outing: six hits, seven earned runs, one walk, zero strikeouts.
Reliever Colten Brewer barely stopped the bleeding, giving up two more earned runs on a pair of home runs before he was able to notch the final out of the nearly 40-minute top half of the first frame.
New York Yankees fans are concerned that Brito — who was making just his third MLB start — may never be the same.
Of course, there's nothing like being down 9-0 before the Pinstripers even get to the plate to make the understanding lot of warm, fuzzy Yankees fans to just shrug and take it all in stride.
Not.
Many Yankees fans were hoping to get a do-over on a technicality. However, no, there is no such codocile in the MLB rule book that accounts for a game starting over simply because a fan wasn't able to make it in front of the television for the first pitch.
Still, others selflessly took the blame for the Yankees' woes upon themselves. In times of crisis, people will go to great lengths of self-sacrifice — natural disasters, war, New York Yankees being shelled — in times of great struggle and woe, people will often put the greater good ahead of their own personal needs. It's a triumph of the human spirit.
New York Yankees shall carry on — somehow
Thursday's first-inning woes against the Twins eclipsed a Gerrit Cole start last June in which the Yankees ace gave up home runs to the first three Minnesota batters he faced. Luis Arraez, Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa all went yard against Cole at Target Field in Minneapolis. However, New York rallied to win 10-7 on that summer night.
Correa went yard again Thursday night in his first game back after missing the majority of the Twins' recent home stand due to back spasms. Buxton, who left Wednesday's game against the Chicago White Sox after a collision while running the bases, did not homer but did score a run after being walked. Arraez was traded to the Miami Marlins this offseason.