The New York Yankees are riding a six-game winning streak as they’re playing some unbelievable baseball and crushing anybody in their path. It’s not what you want if you’re the Minnesota Twins, who have been a floormat for the Bronx Bombers for over two decades, and the Yankees had already won all four of their matchups against them this season. It would be a rematch of their first contest, with Carlos Rodon facing Chris Paddack with the Yankees looking to win this series and keep their dominance at home going.
Rodon flirted with a perfect game for a little, the offense jumped on Paddack early, and the Yankees were able to cruise to an easy 9-5 win to make it seven-in-a-row.
Carlos Rodon Shines and the Offense Continues to Roll in Yankees’ Victory
It was one of those games where you knew the Yankees were going to win after just one inning of play. Carlos Rodon racked up two strikeouts in a clean first, and the offense would follow that up with a four-run ambush on Chris Paddack, who they’ve crushed twice this season. Aaron Judge grounded out to score Anthony Volpe, who led off the game with one of his three hits on the evening. With two outs, the Yankees would pick up three hits in a row to kill any chance Minnesota had at getting back into this series.
Giancarlo Stanton roped a single into centerfield, Anthony Rizzo doubled to set up another RBI opportunity, and Gleyber Torres dunked in a ground-rule double to clear the bases. Both pitchers would exchange zeroes until the fifth inning, where the Yankees delivered a knockout blow to Paddack with another rally. DJ LeMahieu walked, Anthony Volpe singled, and Juan Soto walked, setting up a bases-loaded opportunity for Aaron Judge, who tripled to break this game wide open.
Alex Verdugo picked up a sacrifice fly, and that would give Paddack a total of seven earned runs in four innings pitched. It was answered with two runs from the Minnesota Twins in the sixth, but it was the only time Rodon looked mortal all day. He found a way to gut through the sixth and limit the damage, finishing his line with six innings pitched, two earned runs, no walks, and nine strikeouts.
Over his last six starts, Rodon has a 2.48 ERA and 0.88 WHIP, going a perfect 6-0 as well. He’s finally finding his groove in the rotation and looks like the pitcher the Yankees handed a $162 million contract to. Aaron Judge was walked with the bases loaded in the bottom half of that inning for his fifth RBI of the day, and Dennis Santana would come in and give the Twins scoring opportunities as he allowed three runs in two innings of work.
Michael Tonkin would set the Twins down in order in the ninth inning however, and the Yankees would pick up their 44th win of the season to climb 25 games above .500. They’re now ahead of the Baltimore Orioles by 3.5 games and 2 games in the loss column, and they’ll hope that Marcus Stroman can outduel Pablo Lopez tomorrow night. It’s another rematch from the series in Minnesota, as the Yankees hope to pick up a sweep with first pitch coming at 7:05 PM EST.