MLB Rankings: Baseball’s Greatest Hits of Week-17
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-17
9. Didi Gregorius, 47 percent
As you might guess from the score, Tuesday’s 14-12 Yankee victory over Minnesota rolled a week’s worth of twists and turns into just one evening. That’s why events from that evening occupy three places on the list of the week’s 10 most game-sensitive hits.
Didi Gregorius delivered the first of them in the top of the eighth inning. Minnesota had carried a seemingly secure 9-5 lead into that inning, much of it coming on the strength of Miguel Sano’s three-run home run that capped a five-run fourth inning.
But reliever Blake Parker got into immediate trouble to start the eighth. Gio Urshela followed Parker’s walk to Gleyber Torres by doubling, and when Mike Tauchman doubled Torres home it brought the potential tying run to the plate.
One out later, Aaron Judge doubled both Urshela and Tauchman across.
Two pitching changes after that, Gregorius came up, facing Ryne Harper with two outs, Judge at second and D.J. LeMahieu at first. One out away from carrying at least a one-run lead into the ninth, the odds of a Twins victory still measured 75 percent. But Gregorius reversed the equation with the inning’s third run-scoring double. It sent Judge and LeMahieu across and suddenly the Yankees led 10-9.