Twins walk 11, pick up just one hit in their latest loss to Yankees in New York

NEW YORK ‐ Thank God for the Twins!

That was the all-caps, visible-from-a-block-away headline on the back page of the New York Daily News tabloid Tuesday, with a smaller headline noting that, “No matter how bad things get, Yanks can always count on some success against Minnesota.”

And yes, it’s true, at least for the past 22 years now, and particularly in Yankee Stadium. But rarely has it looked so easy.

Aaron Judge, Anthony Volpe and Giancarlo Stanton each homered Tuesday night, the Twins compounded the problem by walking a season-high 11 Yankees, and Minnesota didn’t manage so much as a hit after Austin Martin led off the game with a single. The final score was 9-1, allowing the Yankees to clinch the teams’ annual series at Yankee Stadium yet again.

The Twins, who have lost nine straight games to the Yankees overall, are now 5-31 (including the playoffs) in the Bronx since they last won a series here in 2014 and have been outscored 218–117 in those games. So far on this trip to New York, they have amassed four hits in the first two games, while the Yankees, under pressure to right themselves after falling to third place in the American League East with a 2-7 start to August, have smashed seven home runs.

“Amazingly, we were in the game until probably the seventh inning,” manager Rocco Baldelli pointed out afterward. “[We were] three at-bats away — drawing a walk, hitting a base hit, popping a homer — and the game, it’s close. So we just have to have that mentality — look around, we’re in the game. We might not be playing our best right now, but we’re in the game and we’ve got to keep going.”

BOXSCORE: New York Yankees 9, Twins 1

Perhaps, but Carlos Rodón wasn’t allowing any such rally. The veteran lefthander, making his 14th career start vs. Minnesota, battled through a command-challenged first inning, throwing 31 pitches, walking Byron Buxton and hitting Ryan Jeffers with a pitch to load the bases. Of course, the Twins are the worst team in baseball with the bases loaded, batting just .175 as a team, so perhaps they were fortunate that Royce Lewis actually drove home a run by hitting into a force play.

“We had a chance to put a few runs on the board early,” Baldelli said. “You want to be able to push across a bunch, and maybe it’s a different game. It was a great opportunity, and we got one.”

After that, though, Rodón was as dominant as the Twins have ever seen him. He retired 19 of the final 20 hitters he faced, including 15 in a row until issuing a two-out walk to Jeffers in the sixth inning. It was the fifth time in the former longtime Chicago White Sox pitcher’s career that he pitched seven or more innings and allowed only one hit.

He struck out only five Twins but consistently forced the Twins into hitting routine ground balls.

The Yankees had far less trouble against starter Travis Adams. Judge blasted Adams’ seventh pitch of the night, a fastball down the middle, 425 feet over the center-field wall, his 38th homer of the season.

“I’d say our strike-throwing wasn’t too good today,” Baldelli said. “It has to be significantly better, that’s no secret. We’ve got to attack better in the zone, get ahead, make better two-strike pitches — all the things we preach.”

Thomas Hatch relieved Adams in the third inning and threw 99 pitches over the next 4⅓ innings, by far the most he has thrown in the majors. He allowed Stanton’s second homer in two nights, this one a 447 foot cannon shot that completely cleared the center-field bullpens.

With two runners on base in the seventh, Hatch intentionally walked Judge to load the bases — perhaps a sound strategy, until he also walked Cody Bellinger to force in another run. Kody Funderburk relieved him and gave up a two-run single to Stanton, his fourth hit of the night, to break the game open.