The Yankees faced the hottest team in baseball on Tuesday, and they dealt with it with a fiery left arm and some red-hot bats.
The entire starting lineup had a hit through the fifth inning, Carlos Rodon showed off another quality pitch, and the Yankees defeated the Twins 5-1 at Target Field.
The Twins (24-17) entered the night having won 17 of their past 20 games, but were no match for the Yankees (28-15), who won for the eighth time, at least in Game 1 of the series. . In the last 10 games.
“I just want to go out there and give my team a chance to win every night,” said Rodon, who pitched six innings and allowed just one run. “Just try to keep the team in the game and let the guys do their jobs. These guys are pretty good.”
Led by big hits from Anthony Volpe, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres and Oswaldo Cabrera, the Yankees had 13 hits to pick up where they left off with a 10-point outburst against the Rays on Sunday. .
Sunday was a five-homer offense, but Tuesday showed off the offensive line’s versatility, with station-to-station hits and Stanton’s 427-foot shot.
“It just puts a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers and sooner or later they’re going to score,” Stanton said.
Rodon allowed a home run on his second pitch of the night, an unfortunate start to the game, but that was the only damage he allowed.
Three of his six hits came in the first inning, including Ryan Jeffers’ leadoff home run.
However, he settled in well and was retired 11 times in a row before allowing the first run in the seventh inning.
“We just had to lock it up,” Rodon said. “I have to leave it to my teammates because they played really good defense today. We hit some hard balls and made a lot of plays. We scored some goals and won the game. is important.”
In his third consecutive start, Rodon did not walk a batter (the third consecutive time in his career and first for the Yankees) and struck out six against the Twins.
Two of those strikeouts came from changeups with runners on base, and he had four strikeouts in nine innings pitched.
Torres jokingly attributed that wrinkle, telling Rodon on Monday’s flight from Tampa that he should throw his changeup more.
With the Twins’ lineup featuring seven right-handed batters and two switch hitters, Rodon was forced to pitch away from them rather than into them.
“So I just tell him, ‘Trust me,’ I know a little bit about the game,” Torres said with a laugh, “but those are the moments we enjoy.”
Rodon suffered his worst start of the season (seven runs in four innings) on May 2 against the Orioles, but has bounced back with quality pitching in the two games since and his command has been on point.
“We want them to earn money,” manager Aaron Boone said. “If he can be eliminated, [the walks] With some swing-and-miss elements that he has, you can get around where they’re going to block you or where they’re going to cause traffic jams. We’re not giving you a free pass, we’re just setting you up for more success. ”
The Yankees quickly responded to Rodon’s only blemish of the night, taking the lead for good in the top of the second inning against Twins right-hander Chris Paddack.
Anthony Rizzo, Torres and Austin Wells hit back-to-back singles that missed the mark, and Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Next, Volpe hit an RBI over the left field for a 2-1 lead.
Stanton then hit his ninth home run of the season in the third inning, making a beeline for the left-center bullpen and getting the job done efficiently.
Alex Verdugo added a two-run double in the fourth inning to round out the offense.
“His at-bat was pretty good off the jump.” [Paddack]”Everyone got a little closer to him,” Boone said. “I think we squared the ball a lot, but it could have been a little more. But overall, everyone tonight. I’m throwing good at-bats against him.”
