While the Twins have little left to play for, they can certainly make things interesting over the final two weeks of the season. Tonight, they put a small dent in the Yankees’ playoff hopes while taking advantage of their shaky bullpen. Plus, a few key Minnesota players made strong cases for the 2026 roster.
The story of this one starts with Simeon Woods Richardson, who delivered his best start of the season against New York’s high-powered, star-studded roster. Simeon diced up the Yankees lineup over
six innings, allowing just two hits and three walks over six innings while striking out 11. He only allowed a single runner to reach second base (a fifth inning double off the bat of Jose Caballero) and instantly rectified that by picking off Caballero as he was trying to reach third.
New York’s only other threat came in the 8th inning when Travis Adams walked Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge (understandable) with two outs in the inning. Luckily, Austin Martin bailed the Twins out with a nifty catch tumbling over the wall in foul territory, putting an end to any hopes of a comeback from the Evil Empire.
Woods Richardson cranked up his splitter usage tonight, throwing it 36% of the time, making it his most used pitch and marked increase over his 7% usage on the season. When SWR was optioned to AAA earlier this year, the Twins told him to focus on developing his splitter and we may have just seen the payoff. The shuffled pitch mix led to a 40% whiff rate overall, up from 22.8% on the season, and a 56% whiff rate on the splitter alone. For context, likely back-to-back AL Cy Young winner and strikeout artist Tarik Skubal has a 32.5% whiff rate on the season. Not every start will be this good, but I didn’t think SWR was capable of a performance of this caliber before tonight.
Offensively, the Twins needed that elite SWR outing. Minnesota was unable to string anything together off NY ace Carlos Rodon, largely thanks to the fact that he throws with his left hand. The Twins had a chance for a big inning early in the third inning thanks to a Jhonny Pereda double and Edouard Julien infield single, but were only able to bring home one run. They added one more in the fifth on a line-drive solo dong from Brooks Lee.
Then, thankfully, the Twins piled on a few runs. The Yankees pulled their lefty after six strong and gave way to Luke Weaver, 2024’s postseason hero who continued his rough 2025. Pinch hitter Trevor Larnach hit a soft double to right fielder Aaron Judge, who currently can’t throw the ball. Brooks Lee liked Larnach’s approach so he did the same, scoring Larnach. A Pereda sac bunt and walks by Julien and Buxton loaded the bases for new lineup fixture Austin Martin, who cleared the bases with the first hard hit ball of the inning and a double of his own.
If the Twins can’t make the playoffs, I will happily settle for ruining the evenings of Yankees fans.
STUDS
- Simeon Woods Richardson: 6 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 11 K
- Brooks Lee: 2-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, 1 2B
- Edouard Julien: 2-2, 1 R, 1 BB
- Austin Martin: 1-4, 1 R, 4 RBI, 1 2B, continued great hair
DUDS
- No duds, Twins win and probably more importantly at this point, Yankees lose!!!
We’ll see you again tomorrow night as Zebby Matthews and his home run troubles will face the Yankees and their league-leading (by a WIDE margin) 254 home runs. The Yankees will send out Cam Schlittler, and I am imploring you to take note of both L’s in his last name.
