As the Yankees prepared to play on the United States’ 250th birthday, Ben Rice cracked a joke.
“We’ve got the guy from Great Britain pitching on the Fourth of July,” the first baseman said, referring to Brendan Beck.
Beck, promoted from Triple-A to start in place of the injured Carlos Rodón on Saturday, is not actually from Great Britain. However, the La Jolla, California native’s mom is British, which let him represent Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic earlier this year.
Maybe that ancestry made Beck the wrong guy to pitch on America’s big day. While the 27-year-old was no turncoat in the Yankees’ quest for their second straight win, he did surrender three home runs to the Twins. The early fireworks set the tone in an 11-4 loss for the pinstripers.
They’ve now dropped eight of their last nine after snapping a seven-game losing streak on Friday night.
Beck, making his first major league start after a solid debut earlier this season, had been pitching well at Triple-A, posting a 3.07 ERA over 88 innings. But with the righty and the Yankees donning stars and stripes themed jerseys, bombs began bursting in the humid Bronx air shortly after first pitch on Saturday.
Minnesota, having already scored on a Byron Buxton double, continued its first-inning offensive when Kody Clemens, son of Roger, launched a two-run homer. Luke Keaschall and Alex Jackson then hit back-to-back homers in the second inning.
Beck, lacking the necessary stuff to consistently get big league hitters out, only lasted 3.2 innings. He totaled five hits, five earned runs, two walks, three strikeouts and six hard-hit balls over 87 pitches.
He wasn’t the only Yankee to serve up a dinger on Saturday, as Trevor Larnach took Tim Hill deep for a solo shot in the fourth inning. Josh Bell also crushed a bases-empty blast off Ryan Yarbrough in the seventh before tacking on a a two-run homer against Camilo Doval in the eighth.
Meanwhile, the Bombers’ bats tried to climb out of their hole with a few dingers of their own. Jasson Domínguez put them on the board with a solo homer in the fourth frame, while Max Schuemann added a two-run jack in the fifth.
The slumping Cody Bellinger also had a run-scoring double in the fifth, marking his first RBI since June 17.
But with the Yankees unable to capitalize at other points in the game. With a 1-for-10 performance with runners in scoring position and nine men left on base, their comeback effort fell way short in their not-so-perilous fight against Minnesota.