At the outset of this series, Aaron Boone came to the defense of his lineup.
Coming off a sluggish series against the Astros, the Yankees manager was asked about a number of struggling hitters, primarily Aaron Judge and Austin Wells.
“Frankly, the offense is the least of our concerns. You’re going to have [bad] stretches, that’s the nature of offense,” Boone said. “We got a couple of guys struggling right now, but I think we have a handful of guys that are really swinging the bats well. I fully expect our offense to be one of our calling cards and something that should carry us.”
His hitters have backed him up with their bats over the past two nights.
Against the trade deadline-ravaged Twins, they followed up a strong series opener with three more home runs in a second straight one-sided win over Minnesota, this one 9-1 in front of 37,552 in The Bronx.
Judge and Giancarlo Stanton went deep in the same game for the first time since July 8, Anthony Volpe added a three-run shot and Carlos Rodón escaped early trouble to turn in seven quality innings of one-run, one-hit ball.
The second straight win by the Yankees marked the first time they have strung together consecutive victories since taking three in a row over the Rays from July 29-31 — the last time they won a series as well.
Judge’s 425-foot, first-inning homer marked his first long ball since July 23, before he went on the injured list with a right elbow flexor strain.
Stanton, meanwhile, has been hot for a while.
He has hit safely in 14 straight starts and has upped his OPS to a stellar .962 after a four-hit, three-RBI night.
Stanton has also done it while playing in the outfield for the first time since 2003, due to Judge’s injury.
At the outset, it looked like the Yankees could have rare trouble with the Twins. Rodón allowed the first three hitters to reach on a single, a walk and a hit batsman.
He fought through it, striking out Luke Keaschall to record his first out on his 23rd pitch.
He nearly got out of the inning without allowing a run, but Royce Lewis narrowly beat out a potential double play. Rodón kept it at one run by striking out Kody Clemens.
The Yankees didn’t trail for long. Judge went deep with one out in the first, and Volpe’s three-run shot in the second staked the Yankees to a three-run lead.
Minnesota starter Travis Adams faced 22 hitters and retired only seven of them.
Rodón, meanwhile, settled down.
The Twins went in order in the second, third, fourth and fifth, and managed just a single hit against the southpaw. At one point, Rodón retired 17 in a row.
He struck out five and walked two while throwing 96 pitches in seven innings — the first Yankees starter to complete seven innings since he did it on July 11, when he went eight innings against the Cubs.
By then, the Yankees were on their way to yet another win over the Twins, improving to an absurd 145-44 against them dating back to 2002.
Wednesday should be the first challenging game of the series, as Minnesota sends ace Joe Ryan to the mound.
Then again, this is the Twins in The Bronx. They are 5-26 at the Stadium since 2015.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
