The New York Yankees rebounded from a shutout loss with a narrow 10-9 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field on Tuesday. The team quickly built a nine-run lead, but had to hold off a late surge by Minnesota as their bullpen faced challenges.
“A little exhale after that one,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone following the win.
The offensive performance was in sharp contrast to Monday’s game, when the Yankees managed only two hits in a 7-0 defeat. On Tuesday, they recorded eight hits through three innings and extended it to all nine batters getting hits by the fourth inning. Trent Grisham contributed with a two-run home run, while Austin Wells, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton each added RBI hits.
“We got some pitches in the zone that we handled well, but I think what really helped us was the mentality of being ready to hit,” Grisham said.
The Yankees have led Major League Baseball this season with 255 home runs. They also top several offensive categories including slugging percentage, OPS, extra-base hits, total bases, walks and intentional walks. With 784 runs scored—an average of 5.19 per game—the team has reached double-digit runs 23 times this year.
Boone praised his lineup’s approach early in the game: “It was just pretty impressive three innings of at-bats there from everyone.”
Despite these strengths at the plate, New York remains five games behind Toronto in the American League East with only 11 games left in the regular season. However, they currently hold first place in the AL Wild Card standings and are positioned for postseason play.
Pitching remained an area of concern as starter Cam Schlittler allowed four runs before being relieved by Fernando Cruz. Ryan Yarbrough then gave up four more runs in just one-third of an inning during Minnesota’s comeback attempt.
“Once Cruz came in and kind of settled things with a big out… you’re just hoping Yarbs can kind of get on a roll like he typically does. Just made too many mistakes tonight,” Boone said.
Relievers Mark Leiter Jr. and Devin Williams combined for 2 2/3 scoreless innings before David Bednar secured his eighth save since joining New York despite allowing a solo home run in the ninth inning.
“That’s one of the stories of the game for me, a huge four outs there from Mark to settle things,” Boone said. “… Him getting four outs was massive, and that allowed Devin and Bednar to take it from there.”
The bullpen has struggled recently—allowing 18 runs across two losses last week—but has also shown improvement at times over recent games. Mark Leiter Jr., reflecting on recent changes among relievers, said: “I feel we have one of the best bullpens in the league. We’ve added a lot of new pieces… I feel very confident that we’ve got a very good group out there to get big outs in any situation.”
Aaron Judge started consecutive games in right field for the first time since suffering an elbow injury earlier this summer but did not need to make any high-intensity throws during Tuesday’s contest.
