Twins fall 9-5 to Yankees, dropping to 0-5 against them this season

NEW YORK – It was a little too early for the drama to build, and New York Yankees starter Carlos Rodón scrunched his face and tilted his head like a shrug after he watched Carlos Santana’s sixth-inning homer land in the right-field seats Wednesday.

Rodón was perfect through his first 16 batters. Any thoughts about a historic night ended with Santana’s swing, and there wasn’t much drama left in the game, either.

The Twins didn’t have a baserunner until Santana belted an elevated fastball for his ninth home run of the season with one out in the sixth inning. By then, they were already in an eight-run hole during their 9-5 loss at Yankee Stadium. The Twins are winless in five games against the Yankees this season, holding a lead for only one inning in all those games combined.

“They’ve outplayed us,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have not played very well, either. It’s five games now and we need to do better. We need to do a lot better.”

The Twins offense showed signs of life after Santana’s homer, making the score look less lopsided. Kyle Farmer and Manuel Margot had back-to-back hits against Rodón in the sixth inning, and Carlos Correa drove in a run when he hit a sacrifice fly to end a 10-pitch plate appearance.

Royce Lewis clubbed a leadoff homer in the seventh inning, becoming the first player in Twins history to homer in each of his first three games of the season.

“I’d strike out eight times if we needed to,” said Lewis, who turned 25 on Wednesday. “If that’s what it took for us to win, I’d do it, especially against this team. I very much respect this team. For them being the best team in the league right now, in my opinion, you want to showcase a little better than we have.”

* BOXSCORE: N.Y. Yankees 9, Twins 5

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Twins starter Chris Paddack, whose fastball velocity was up about 2 mph, was knocked around by the Yankees for the second time this season. He was charged with seven runs in four innings.

It was a disastrous first inning, which started with a missed strike call on Paddack’s first pitch that went down the middle. After surrendering singles to the first two batters, Paddack induced a ground ball from Aaron Judge. Second baseman Farmer briefly bobbled the ball, turning a potential double play into one out.

Paddack struck out a batter before Giancarlo Stanton lined an RBI single to center, the ball leaving Stanton’s bat at a blistering 115.5 mph. After an Anthony Rizzo double put two runners on base with two outs, Gleyber Torres poked a ball down the right-field line. Torres thought it was headed foul, not realizing he needed to run out of the batter’s box until he saw the ball drop past a diving Margot in right field for a two-run double.

“I think there were a couple of missed calls, a broken-bat single, maybe a double-play ball, possibly,” Paddack said. “Some of the things that are just out of my control, which I feel like I remind myself on a daily basis, especially start days, to forget about those.”

The wheels fell off for Paddack in the fifth inning after he retired 10 consecutive batters, allowing two walks and a single before he was removed. Twins reliever Diego Castillo, tasked with facing Judge with the bases loaded and none out in front of an announced crowd of 43,202, allowed a three-run triple down the left-field line on his third pitch, the ball skipping past left fielder Willi Castro in the outfield corner.

Rodón compiled more strikeouts (nine) than balls he allowed in play (seven) before Santana lifted his 368-foot homer. Santana, who has more than 40 career plate appearances vs. Rodón, said he was certain he would see a fastball after the first two pitches were breaking balls.

The offense, however, was too little, too late.

“I don’t want to start calling things positives,” Baldelli said. “We’re not here for positives. We’re here to win the game and obviously we’re not accomplishing that at the moment.”