The Yankees got six RBI from the bottom of the order to complete a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins with an 8-5 win Thursday in The Bronx.
With the win, their eighth straight, the Yanks improved to 107-42 (.718) against Minnesota since 2002. And on the year, the Yanks (45-19) went 6-0 against the Twins, outscoring them 36-12.
Here are the takeaways...
- Trent Grisham got a first-pitch 95 mph fastball right down the middle and didn’t waste any time depositing it into the right-field seats for a two-out, two-run homer to put the Yanks ahead in the second.
Grisham, getting the start in centerfield, entered the night hitless in his last 20 at-bats before his 384-foot dinger (105.8 mph off the bat).
- The Yankees got something going in the third with their patience at the plate as Minnesota starter Pablo Lopez kept nibbling at the corners and came up empty as he walked Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton all on 3-2 pitches to load the bases with nobody out.
Anthony Rizzo, after fouling the first pitch off his knee, went down swinging on a fastball above the zone, but Gleyber Torres – who is batting .280 over his last 21 games after struggling to start the season – slapped a two-strike bouncing ball down the first base line for a two-run double. Austin Wells added a sac fly to center to make it 5-2.
- The Yankees were gifted a run in the fourth when Volpe (who singled) and Judge (who walked) executed a two-out double-steal and the throw to third ended up in left field. Stanton got a base hit just past Carlos Correa up the middle to score Judge to make it 7-2.
- After the Twins cut the lead to two, the bottom of the Yankees order had a response yet again. With one down, Wells singled and on Oswaldo Cabrera’s bouncing ball single, hustled to third to cover the corners. The catcher came around on Grisham’s sac fly, giving him three RBI on the night.
- Marcus Stroman got stung with two down in the first when a sinker to Correa leaked back over the outside third of the plate and the shortstop, who had been 0-for-7 in the series to that point, smacked it 383 feet for an opposite-field home run.
The long ball stung Stroman again in the third when Christian Vazquez got a 3-2 slurve that hung on the outside corner and the catcher – who entered the night 8-for-22 against the Yanks' righty in his career – drove it 404 feet into the visitor's bullpen to tie the game.
Looking for a shutdown top of the fourth inning after getting a 5-2 lead, Stroman plunked the leadoff man and allowed a base hit to put two on with nobody down. But eight pitches later he was out of the jam with ease, with a foul pop-up, a liner to center and a pop-up to short from Vazquez.
But Stroman's quest for another shutdown inning did not go to plan in the fifth as a leadoff walk was followed by a double down the first base line and a sacrifice fly. Stroman should have had the second out on a flyball to left, but Judge playing there for just the 4th time in his career (all this season), pulled up on the ball thinking it would slice back into the seats only to see it land in fair territory for an RBI ground-rule double.
A two-out hit batter ended Stroman’s night with two runners left on. Ian Hamilton allowed an RBI single before closing the frame.
Stroman, who broke a 22-game streak of Yankees starters allowing fewer than three runs, finished with a final line of: 4.2 innings, five runs, six hits, two walks, two hit batters, and two strikeouts on 78 pitches (45 strikes).
- Before the top of the sixth could get underway, the grounds crew covered the field as rain began to fall. The game was paused for 56 minutes.
After the rain stopped, Alex Verdugo entered to play left field with Judge moving to right and Soto exiting the game.
- Victor Gonzales (0.2) and Luke Weaver (1.1) combined for scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh working around a walk and a hit.
Tommy Kahnle got the eighth and with one out walked Vazquez on four pitches before allowing a 2-2 single to put the tying run at the plate. But the Yanks’ righty got Ryan Jeffers looking and Correa to hit into a fielder’s choice thanks to a fine play by Volpe at short.
- Clay Holmes worked around a one-out hit for a clean ninth to earn his 18th save of the season.
- It isn't all great news for those in pinstripes: Rizzo is in a serious funk. He finished the game 0-for-3 with a walk and now has just seven hits in his last 52 at-bats. The first baseman hasn’t homered since May 10 and has just five extra-base hits and is slashing .194/.252/.266 for a .518 OPS over his last 124 at-bats in the last 33 games dating to April 29.
Who was the MVP? Trent Grisham
The centerfielder entered Thursday's game 2-for-39 (a home run and single) with three RBI and was slashing .051/.213/.128 for a .341 OPS. So, of course, he drove in three runs and got the Yanks started with a two-run dinger.