Twins 5, Yankees 4, and it took 13 innings and three hours and 48 minutes for Minnesota to finally make it stick. Victor Caratini's single up the middle in the bottom of the 13th scored Luke Keaschall and ended a game the New York Yankees had tied or taken the lead in three separate times. They just couldn't make any of it hold.
It's the kind of loss that stings more for how much the club did right. Down 2-0 entering the ninth against a bullpen that had shut them down all afternoon, the Yankees tied it. They took the lead in the 10th. They took it again in the 11th. Every single time, the Twins had an answer waiting in the bottom half.
Turning Point
The at-bat that should have decided this game came in the top of the ninth. Down 2-0 and staring at a 92.2% Twins win probability, Anthony Volpe ripped a two-run double to right off Minnesota's pen, scoring George Lombard Jr. and José Caballero to tie it at 2-2. That single swing knocked the Twins' odds down to 53.3% (basically a coin flip), and for a few innings it looked like the game the Yankees would remember.
Instead, the real turning point arrived three innings later and nobody hit a ball out of the infield. Bases loaded, nobody out, top of the 12th, Volpe standing on third with a chance to put this thing away for good. Heliot Ramos grounded into a double play that also erased Volpe at the plate on a throw home. Rally over, inning over, and the Yankees never threatened again.
Star of the Game
Volpe's line does the talking: 2-for-5 with the double, two RBI, and a stolen base, playing shortstop like a guy who wants to be the guy this club builds around for the next decade. The Captain (yes, this is where we are now) delivered the biggest hit of the day in the biggest spot of the day. That the Yankees still lost isn't on him.
Cody Bellinger had the quieter monster game -- 3-for-5 with a walk, a stolen base, and the run that put New York ahead 3-2 in the 10th. Between him and Volpe, the top of the lineup did its job for 13 innings straight. The bullpen and a few unlucky bounces did the rest of the damage.
Key At-Bats and Pitching Lines
Carlos Rodón gave the Yankees exactly what they needed from a starter on a getaway-day matinee: six innings, four hits, two earned runs, five strikeouts against three walks. The only damage was a first-inning RBI single from Josh Bell and a solo shot in the fifth off the bat of Ryan Kreidler (his seventh of the year). No decision for Rodón, which feels like the wrong outcome for 102 pitches of that quality.
Ali Sánchez's RBI single in the top of the 10th made it 3-2 and briefly felt like the game-winner. It wasn't. Minnesota answered immediately in the bottom half when Keaschall singled home Brooks Lee, and that call-and-response defined the rest of the afternoon.
Spencer Jones had a day to forget -- 0-for-6 with five strikeouts, plus the club's lone error in the fourth on a ball off the bat of Kody Clemens (nobody's perfect, and center field at Target Field has eaten better outfielders than him this year). He'll get more chances. The lineup around him made sure of that much.
The Bullpen Math
David Bednar worked around a tying single in the 10th, then couldn't finish the job in the 11th -- Royce Lewis' sacrifice fly knotted it back up at 4-4 and cost him the blown save, his fourth of the season. John Schreiber relieved him for the 12th and actually escaped it clean, working around an intentional walk to Brooks Lee before a Keaschall double play ended the inning. He came back out for the 13th, though, and the first batter he faced beat him -- Caratini's single up the middle scored automatic-runner Keaschall before Schreiber recorded a single out. Schreiber falls to 2-4. It's a tough one to hang on a guy who's quietly been one of the more reliable arms down there this year, but somebody has to take the loss in a game like this.
Tommy Nance got the win for Minnesota on the strength of a clean top of the 13th, and honestly, good for him (he's up to 3-3 now, a nice number to carry into a pennant race for a team still fighting for its own relevance).
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak and drops the Yankees to 88-64, still four games back in the AL East but sitting comfortably atop the Wild Card race. They took two of three from the Twins this week despite it, which is the kind of series you'll take in mid-September without complaint. Next stop is Arizona, and there's no time to sit with this one.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
