The Yankees took a rare beating in Minnesota on Wednesday, losing 8-1 to the Twins, snapping their seven-game winning streak.

Here are the takeaways...

- Nestor Cortes retired the first nine batters he faced, but back-to-back singles to open up the fourth put him in some trouble. Two batters later, former Yankee Gio Urshela drove in a run on a long single that was misplayed by Giancarlo Stanton, and then Jose Miranda drove in another with an infield hit. Aaron Hicks threw out Urshela on another single to keep it a two-run game.

- The Yankees responded by putting men on second and third with one out and DJ LeMahieu at the dish. The infielder cut the lead in half with a sac fly, but that’s all they’d get. In the bottom of the fifth, Ryan Jeffers got the run back with a solo shot, and Byron Buxton added another two batters later to make it 4-1 Minnesota. That ended Cortes’ night, marking the worst outing for the lefty who had been nothing but dominant all year. He only struck out four and allowed those four runs on seven hits in 4.1 frames. It tied his shortest outing of the season (his first start of 2022 was also 4.1 innings), and it was the first time he allowed four runs since Aug. 10 of last season.

- Stanton continued to be tested in right field – Urshela doubled over his head to lead off the sixth, and Miranda blooped one in front of him – while all tough plays, all three could have been made, and two probably should have. Wednesday was his first night in the outfield since returning from the IL less than a week ago, and it was his first time playing the outfield in Target Field since 2018 where he played left. He last was a right fielder there way back in 2016.

- Clarke Schmidt was used for cleanup duty, but a fielder’s choice by Max Kepler and then a double by Trevor Larnach gave the Twins a 6-1 lead. He then walked his final two batters on eight pitches, and In came Manny Banuelos, and he walked his first batter, loading the bases with none out, and two batters later, Miranda added another two RBI, making it an 8-1 game. That finished Schmidt's line: he allowed four earned on three hits in 1.2 innings, and walked his final two batters on eight consecutive pitches – his ERA jumped from 1.72 to 3.63.

- Hicks has quietly been heating up, and got two more hits on Wednesday – in his last 14 games, he is hitting .311 with a .434 on-base percentage. In that span, he has five multi-hit games, so with that does come six 0-fors, but nonetheless, it’s results.

- In fact, Hicks had half the Yankee hits tonight, as they had just four hits. It was their ninth game this season with four or less hits.

What's next

Gerrit Cole will take the bump on Thursday at 7:40 p.m., while the Twins will return with Dylan Bundy in the rubber game of the three-game set.

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