As predicted by this fan, the Twins earned a series win over the New York Yankees on Sunday, getting plenty of production from the lineup and a dynamite start from Joe Ryan, who fanned nine over seven innings in the 6-1 win. It was the Twins’ first series win in the Bronx since 2014.
“This team is worth your time,” said radio play-by-play voice Kris Atteberry during the game. He’s right. It’s back-to-back series wins for the Twins, plus they also have pulled within three games of .500 and they remain very much in the hunt for the division and wild card.
And the Twins did it without power on Sunday. Instead of home runs, they banged out a dozen hits, including four doubles, and were 5-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
“The Twins have a good offense, and they put long at-bats against (Weathers),” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told MLB.com. “I thought his stuff and swing and miss were good, but they battled him throughout to make it challenging all day.”
The Twins are off Monday but then they face another immediate test because the Cleveland Guardians come to town. Now’s the time to put that American League-leading offense to work against the Guards and make a real move up in the division. Taj Bradley gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–Ryan’s line: Joe blanked the Yankees on three hits over seven innings with one walk and nine strikeouts on 106 pitches. He improves to 6-5 with a 3.36 ERA.
–Deadline worries: As the Twins get closer to the trade deadline, are we to get a repeat of last season (I hope not) or will they be buyers instead of sellers? I don’t expect the Pohlads to be buyers, but I also don’t want them to part with Ryan.
However, their hands might be tied in this matter because although Ryan is under team control through next season, don’t they have to move him before a possible lockout? If it comes to that, ask for the world, Minnesota, and get a semi-competent starter in return so that the Twins can finish off a suddenly promising 2026 season.
–The last time the Twins took a series from the Yankees in New York, Ron Gardenhire was still the manager (it would be his last season) and the winning pitchers were Ricky Nolasco and Ex-Yankee Phil Hughes, who had one of the best seasons of his career in 2014.
Hughes won the rubber match 7-2 on June 1, 2014, as he allowed just two runs over eight innings on 100 pitches. He improved to 6-1 at that point but would go on to win 16 games that season with a 3.52 ERA. More impressive: He walked only 16 batters in 209-plus innings pitched.
“It started off with (Josh) Willingham,” said Gardenhire to the Star Tribune after the series win. “He leads off with a big homer on the first pitch and gets everyone fired up in the dugout, and it went from there. We had some great at-bats after that.”
Source: Newspapers.com