Coming into Monday night, the Yankees were one win away from officially clinching a playoff berth. While that’s obviously not the end goal of their season, getting into the postseason is the first step. They’re now there.
Officially, the clinching came prior to the Yankees’ game ending, as the Blue Jays losing to the Tigers was also enough to get the job done. However on the field, the Yankees got the job done too, eventually.
On the mound, Will Warren was pretty good but deserved better. He ended
up going 5.2 innings, allowing two runs — both of which ended up unearned — on five hits and two walks. Thanks to some iffy defense and the offense struggling, he left the game in line for the loss, before the offense responded just in time. Thanks to a six-run eighth inning that included Aaron Judge’s first home run since returning from the injured list, the Yankees flipped the game back in their favor. They didn’t need the win to pop the champagne, but it still feels better to get in with it, as they downed the Twins 8-3.
After both teams failed to capitalize on some early runners, the Yankees broke the deadlock in the third. With two outs, José Caballero just cleared the left wall at Target Field for a solo home run, putting the Yankees up early.
On the mound, Warren was mostly very solid. He ended up giving up the lead in the sixth, albeit with some defensive miscues that weren’t entirely on him. After Warren got the first out of the inning, Ryan McMahon let a Kody Clemens grounder through his legs for an error. Warren then got the second out, brining Josh Bell to the plate. Bell hit a liner to a leaping George Lombard Jr., who got a glove on the ball, but couldn’t complete the catch. The ball got past him into center field, moving Clemens to third. That one was ruled a single as opposed to an error, as it would’ve been a very nice play had Lombard completed it.
That brought us to the most frustrating part of the inning. Emmanuel Rodriguez was up next, and he dropped in a hit that would’ve scored one run no matter what. However, Spencer Jones then made another miscue — another not ruled an error — while attempting to field the rolling hit. The ball went off Jones’ glove and ended up rolling to the warning track. Not only did the one run score, but Bell came all the way around from first, with Rodriguez going to third on what was ruled a triple. Two runs scored on the play and after all Warren’s pretty good work, he left trailing, as Aaron Boone went to the bullpen after that. Yes, both balls that Lombard and Jones misplayed were decently hit, but they still felt like plays that should’ve been made.
The Yankees coughing up those two runs would’ve been way less of an issue had they not been shutdown by the quite meh Twins’ starter Dean Kremer. In 5.2 innings, Kremer allowed just that one run on the Caballero homer, and allowed just one other hit in total.
The offense finally got something going again once the Twins turned to their bullpen. With reliever Andrew Morris on the mound, Lombard led off the eighth inning with a double, and a Ryan McMahon infield single put runners at the corners. Two batters later, Caballero picked up his second RBI of the night with a single.
Then following a double steal, Ben Rice punched through a single to score two and give the Yankees the lead back. The big blow was still yet to come, though. After Cody Bellinger beat out the throw on an infield single, Judge came to the plate. While he has a couple hits since returning from the IL, Judge has not looked like the “Aaron Judge” we all know…until know. Judge demolished a A.J. Minter offering out to left field for his first home run since returning, giving the Yankees a decent cushion.
The Twins got one run back in the bottom of the eighth when Bell homered off Tim Hill, but Austin Wells answered with one of his own in the top of the ninth. John Schreiber finished things off in the ninth and the Yankees could officially celebrate.
With the Bombers now in the postseason and still trying to track down the Rays in the AL East, the Yankees and Twins will continue their series tomorrow night at 7:40 pm ET. Max Fried and Bailey Ober are expected to be the starting pitchers for that one.
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