About Last Night: Yankees 5, Twins 1

About Last Night: Yankees 5, Twins 1

By Derek McAdam

May 15, 2024

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The New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins by a score of 5-1 last night, improving to 28-15 on the season. Here’s a recap of the game.

Quick Stats: W: Carlos Rodon (4-2): 6+ IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 6 K

                     L: Chris Paddack (4-2): 5 IP, 12 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

Home Runs: NYY: Giancarlo Stanton (9) MIN: Ryan Jeffers (10)

Also : In what is a rare occasion, every starter for the Yankees recorded at least one hit.

The Big Story: After enjoying an off-day following the series in St. Petersburg, where the Yankees took two games out of three from the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees began a three-game set last night against the Twins, with Carlos Rodon taking the hill for the first game.

Jeffers lead off the bottom of the first with a solo home run on the second pitch Rodon threw, giving the Twins a quick 1-0 lead. While Rodon also got into a little bit of trouble in the inning, he worked his way out of trouble, on his way to what would be another solid start.

While the Yankees trailed for a half inning, they tied the game in the top of the 2nd on a sacrifice fly from Oswaldo Cabrera. Anthony Volpe then came to the plate with runners at the corners and hit an RBI double to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

In the next inning, Stanton hit his ninth home run of the season into the Yankee bullpen in left-center field to extend the Yankee lead to 3-1. In the following inning, Alex Verdugo laced a two-run double into left-center field to push two more runs across the plate and give the Yankees a 5-1 lead, which would ultimately be the final score.

Rodon managed to settle down after the first inning, and retired 11 batters in a row, before giving up a single to Carlos Santana in the 7th, to which he was ultimately pulled from the game. Ian Hamilton threw two scoreless innings, while Clay Holmes came on in a non-save situation in the 9th to finish off the game.

Player of the Game: Carlos Rodon definitely deserves this award for last night’s performance. After that first inning, it didn’t seem as if he was going to make it past five innings. However, he settled himself down and managed to give the Yankees yet another quality start.

Notable Performances: Every Yankee having a hit is definitely a statistic in which each player deserves recognition for. Hamilton and Holmes pitching three innings of shutout baseball was also very nice to see.

Better to Forget: I don’t think I’ve ever said this, but no one on the Yankees should want to forget last night.

My Take: The Yankees are continuing to find ways to win. Not only are they getting solid performances from their starting pitchers, but their offense continues to find ways to get runs without relying on the home run.

First, Rodon looked very good. I don’t think it was his best performance of the season, but he surely didn’t disappoint. The slider looked very good and he was also able to get his fastball up to 97 mph against several hitters. As I mentioned above, Rodon’s pitch count after the 1st inning was in the 20s, so he was going to have to get some quick outs if he wanted to stay in for a longer period of time, and he did just that.

This is the Carlos Rodon that the Yankees wanted to see after they signed him to the 6-year, $162 million pact two off-seasons ago. Hopefully, he can keep this up.

As for the offense, I’m liking these mini-rallies that the Yankees are putting together. The Yankees started the 2nd inning with the bases loaded and no outs, and managed to push a couple of runs over the plate just by putting the ball into play.

Verdugo’s double in the 4th was also a nice touch to help bolster the lead, although the center fielder took a strange route to get to the ball and probably should have made the catch. Nonetheless, it was a close call that went in the Yankees’ favor.

And let’s not forget Holmes, who came in during a non-save situation to get some work in. Holmes has thrown 18.1 innings this season and has not allowed an earned run. He’s also struck out 21 in that time and walked only three. This is a resemblance of the Clay Holmes from a couple of years ago, perhaps even better.

Overall, it was a very nice win to start the three-game series in Minneapolis. Hopefully, they can keep it up and take the series tonight.

What’s Next?: The Yankees will play the second game tonight against the Twins, with the first pitch set for 7:40 p.m. EST. Marcus Stroman is set to start for the Yankees, while Pablo Lopez is scheduled to go for the Twins.