BRONX, NY – If there was ever a time the New York Yankees needed to face the Minnesota Twins, it’s now. Since the start of the 2002 season, the Yankees hold a 125-44 (.738) record against the Twins and have won nine consecutive games, including postseason matchups.
Tuesday night’s 9-1 win marked the first time since July 31 that the Yankees have won back-to-back games. Powered by the long ball, a surging Giancarlo Stanton, and a dominant Carlos Rodón start, New York improved to 64-56 on the year.
It was anything but an ideal first inning for All-Star Rodón, who entered with a 3.35 ERA. The Twins forced him to throw 30 pitches in the inning, scoring a run on a leadoff single, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch before leaving two runners stranded. Rodón escaped further trouble by striking out AL Player of the Week Luke Keaschall, inducing a 6-4 fielder’s choice from Royce Lewis, and fanning Kody Clemons to end the inning.
When asked if he worried about lasting past the first, Rodón said, “That wasn’t in my head, I was just trying to get three outs.”
The Bronx Bombers wasted no time responding, as Aaron Judge launched his 38th homer of the season, his first since July 23, into the Yankees’ bullpen to tie the game at one in the bottom of the inning.
Issuing free passes to the team with the most home runs in the league is never a good idea. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ryan McMahon each drew a walk, and Anthony Volpe made rookie Travis Adams pay, launching an opposite-field three-run homer to put the Yankees up 4-1 in the bottom of the second.
An error by first baseman Edouard Julien and two walks sent Adams to the showers after just 2.1 innings. Thomas Hatch kept the Twins in the game briefly, striking out Paul Goldschmidt and getting Ryan McMahon to ground out to second to escape the jam.
Stanton, making his first back-to-back starts in right field since 2023, stayed hot with a 114.7 mph double into the gap in the first, then added a 447-foot blast in the fifth to put the Yankees ahead 5-1.
Aaron Boone on Stanton’s homer: “He just hits them different than everyone, he really does.”
It was his 12th home run in just 30 games, passing former Yankee Jason Giambi for 44th on the all-time list.
The Yankees are now 47-7 when both Judge and Stanton hit a home run in the same game.
Rodón settled in, tossing seven innings of one-hit, one-run ball with five strikeouts to earn his twelfth win of the season.
The Yankees held the Twins to just one hit tonight, marking their third one-hitter of the season, the first time the franchise has accomplished that feat since 1955.
The Twins couldn’t get out of their own way all night. A leadoff double by Goldschmidt was followed by a McMahon single, then an intentional walk to Judge loaded the bases with two outs. That strategy backfired for manager Rocco Baldelli when Hatch walked his seventh batter, forcing in a run. Stanton then extended the Yankees’ lead with his fourth hit of the night, a double off the right-field wall, bringing in two more and pushing the score to 8-1 in the bottom of the seventh.
The bats didn’t stop there. Chisholm Jr. started the bottom of the eighth with a leadoff triple to dead center, and JC Escarra (who replaced Goldschmidt at the top of the inning) brought him home with a groundout to second base, growing New York’s lead to 9-1.
Tim Hill and Yerry De Los Santos closed the door with two three-up, three-down innings to put the Twins to bed.
