Yankees sweep Twins for 8th straight win
NEW YORK (AP) — Trent Grisham homered and had three RBIs, doubling his totals in both categories, and the New York Yankees completed a season sweep of the Minnesota Twins with an 8-5 victory Thursday night for their eighth straight win.
“Just fired up for Grish. Obviously hasn’t gotten the playing time that he’s used to certainly as an everyday player in this league,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Excited for him that he was able to really have a big hand in this victory.”
New York slugger Juan Soto was removed with left forearm discomfort following a 56-minute rain delay before the sixth inning. He will undergo imaging Friday, and Boone said it’s too early to tell if the star right fielder will need to miss time.
Gleyber Torres bounced a two-run double inside first base for the Yankees (45-19), who broke a tie with Philadelphia for the best record in the majors. They moved to 25-6 in the last 31 games and extended their longest winning streak since a nine-game run in June 2022.
“One of the really special things going on is the many contributions we’re getting and the variety of ways we’re getting them,” Boone said.
On deck this weekend, the Yankees renew an old October rivalry when they welcome Shohei Ohtani and the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers to the Bronx for a highly anticipated series loaded with star power.
“I think it’s going to be an amazing atmosphere,” Boone said.
Gold Glove shortstop Anthony Volpe made two outstanding defensive plays in the late innings, sprawling to snag Carlos Correa’s sharp grounder with two on to end the eighth.
Volpe also manufactured a run with his speed, stealing third and scoring on catcher Christian Vázquez’s throwing error after reaching on an infield single.
“He’s special out there. He really is,” Boone said. “He’s just playing at such a high level.”
Volpe and Aaron Judge both extended their on-base streaks to 32 games, tied for the longest in the majors this season.
Giancarlo Stanton walked three times and hit an RBI single. Austin Wells contributed a sacrifice fly as the AL East leaders finished 6-0 versus Minnesota, a perennial Yankees punching bag. After outscoring the Twins 36-12 this year, New York is 123-44 against them since 2002 — including the playoffs.
Correa homered and knocked in two runs for Minnesota. Vázquez, the No. 9 batter, also went deep.
Handed a 7-2 lead after four innings, Yankees starter Marcus Stroman was unable to get through five.
Minnesota scored three times in the fifth, including an RBI double by Max Kepler on a flyball that landed just fair in the left-field corner. Judge, making a rare start in left instead of center, jogged toward the ball and pulled up well before it dropped, apparently thinking it would float foul.
A confounded Stroman stuck out his hands for a moment, wondering what happened.
Stroman was charged with five runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings, just the 10th time this season a Yankees starter failed to last five. The right-hander was 3-0 with a 1.01 ERA in his previous four outings.
New York starters had permitted three runs or fewer in a franchise-record 22 consecutive games, going 17-2 with a 1.55 ERA during that span.
“A tough one, for sure. It just felt like my feel was off,” Stroman said.
Luke Weaver (4-1) worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Clay Holmes got three outs for his 18th save.
Grisham added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to go with his two-run homer off Pablo López (5-6) in the second. Batting ninth in his 15th start this season, the center fielder entered hitting .051 with one homer and three RBIs.
Working carefully to New York’s dangerous sluggers in the 2-3-4 spots, López issued a career-high six walks — all to Soto, Judge and Stanton — in four innings. That got the All-Star righty in trouble in the third, when consecutive full-count walks to those three hitters loaded the bases with nobody out in a 2-all game. All three runners scored.
“Against a lineup as deep as this one, you’re just giving them fuel,” said López, who has lost four of his past five starts. “The offense kept battling. I just like kept digging them in a deeper hole inning after inning. That’s exactly what I should not be doing, and it’s on me.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: Oft-injured 3B Royce Lewis and CF Byron Buxton were rested. Lewis returned Tuesday after missing 58 games with a strained right quadriceps. The plan is for him to maybe play all three games in Pittsburgh this weekend, manager Rocco Baldelli said.
Yankees: 1B Anthony Rizzo was shaken up after fouling a pitch directly off his right knee in the third. He remained in the game.
UP NEXT
Twins: RHP Joe Ryan (4-4, 3.38 ERA) starts Friday night at Pittsburgh against RHP Mitch Keller (7-3, 3.42) in the opener of a three-game series. Ryan gave up four homers over five innings last Saturday in a 5-2 loss at Houston.
Yankees: RHP Cody Poteet (2-0, 2.45 ERA) makes his 12th major league start and third for New York. He faces Dodgers rookie RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2, 3.32), pursued by the Yankees in the offseason before he signed a $325 million contract with Los Angeles.
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