Yankees 12, Twins 6: Offense comes alive, avoids sweep in Minnesota

After a pretty decent start to the season, the Yankees’ offense had really been struggling in recent games. Since scoring nine runs last Thursday against the Angels, the Yankees have managed to plate just eight in their last five games, with almost everyone slumping at once. Well, it takes more than one game to show that they’re out of that, but Wednesday afternoon’s game was a good place to start.

All but one Yankee starter recorded a hit, as they racked up 12 runs on 14 hits as a team. At the top of the lineup were Anthony Volpe and Aaron Judge, who led the way and both got on base four times each. The offense’s explosion allowed the Yankees to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Twins, as they picked up a 12-6 win.

After not doing so for much of the previous week, the Yankees’ offense showed signs of life early in this game. Gleyber Torres led off the second inning with a double, and advanced to third after center fielder Nick Gordon’s throw skipped past the Twins’ infielders and into foul territory. Willie Calhoun brought home with an infield single that was also assisted by the defense as Joey Gallo — playing first — fielded it, but didn’t toss to the correct fielder, also allowing Calhoun to be safe.

Things didn’t stop there either. Isiah Kiner-Falefa immediately followed that up by reaching on a well-placed bunt single. Two batters later, Oswaldo Cabrera worked a walk to load the bases. An Anthony Volpe single plated one run, and Aaron Judge followed that with a double that scored three more. That gave the Yankees five runs, which was more than they have put up in the previous three games combined.

However, because seemingly nothing can go right for the Yankees, Judge was then thrown out trying to steal third. His slide was a bit of an awkward one, and he came up holding his arm and went straight to down the dugout tunnel, followed by the trainers. As he was DHing, we had a bit of a dramatic few innings waiting for his next at-bat, but he would step in the box as normal when he was due up.

The Twins immediately got one of those runs back. Jose Miranda led off the bottom of the second with a homer off Germán, getting Minnesota on the board.

In the fourth, the offense got going again. After Kyle Higashioka started the inning with a single, Cabrera added a bunt single of his own, thanks in part to a throwing error on Willi Castro. Volpe came up next, and he scored two runs on a double that just eluded a diving attempt by Trevor Larnach. Judge then walked in his first time at the plate since the aforementioned scare. Rizzo kept the train moving with another two-RBI double, as Twins’ starter Kenta Maeda exited the game with some sort of injury.

A crushed homer by Torres then took the Yankees into double digits for just the second time this season.

In the bottom of the fourth, Miranda went deep off Germán for the second time on the day. This one was a two-run shot, after Germán had walked Larnach to start the inning. Two innings later, Joey Gallo clubbed a two-run homer of his own.

Germán would come back out for the seventh inning, but was removed after allowing a leadoff triple to Gordon. Ian Hamilton came in and eventually got out of the inning, but Gordon did score in the process. For the day, Germán allowed six runs on five hits and two walks in six innings, striking out eight.

The Yankees added another run to their tally on the eighth. With Volpe on third after having led off the inning with a walk, DJ LeMahieu was potentially robbed of a home run by Larnach. However, it did still plate Volpe, who tagged up and scored.

Hamilton returned for the eighth inning, and threw a 1-2-3 frame, striking out two. Clay Holmes got the ninth, and he got three quicks outs without much fuss, sealing a win.

The offense obviously needs to continue performing better if they want to show that their recent slump was just that. However, you need to start somewhere. Next up is a four-game set in Arlington against the Rangers, which will begin with ace Gerrit Cole on the hill. He’ll face former Yankees lefty Andrew Heaney tomorrow night at 8:05pm ET.

Box Score