Around the Empire: Yankees news - 4/16/23

NJ.com | Randy Miller: The Yankees had a firm hold on the second game against the Twins after Anthony Volpe hit his first career home run, and Aaron Judge hit one right after to make it 2-0 early. Nestor Cortes pitched seven innings over 93 pitches, and Clay Holmes came in to “face [the Twins’] best righties,” according to Aaron Boone. But as we saw during stretches last season, Holmes was erratic and cost New York the game. So, the question comes again: Can the Yankees eventually trust Holmes to be a playoff closer, or do they have to look somewhere else for a different answer?

New York Post | Dylan Svoboda: Before we get into the heavier stuff from the third game of a four-game series between the Yankees and Twins, let’s talk about the lighter side of things, which involves Giancarlo Stanton managing to fake out an entire stadium of people, including the Yankees play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay. The slugger hit the ball so hard that a double off the wall looked like it was gone.

New York Post | Joel Sherman: The win against the Twins didn’t come without some controversy, though. Domingo Germán was using a sticky substance, which the umpires determined was rosin, which is legal, but because there was an excess amount, he was told to wash it off. Even without the sticky stuff, he put up a solid performance, and the Yankees are going to need that consistently with Luis Severino and Carlos Rodón on the shelf for the foreseeable future. The difference in statistical output between the duo of Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes compared to Germán, Clarke Schmidt, and Jhony Brito is concerning.

Sports Illustrated | Jelani Scott: Speaking of the sticky situation during the Twins and Yankees game, we were able to hear what Twins manager Rocco Baldelli had to say, and it revolved around the fact that Germán didn’t fully wash off all the rosin from his hand, as there was still some left on the pinky of his throwing hand.