Yankees' Juan Soto exits early with 'left forearm discomfort' in win over Twins

The Yankees beat the Twins Thursday night, which was hardly news.

That’s what they’ve regularly done to the Twins the last 20-plus years.

No, the headline — and a frightening one for the Yankees and their fans — from the 8-5 victory at the Stadium, which completed a three-game sweep and gave the Bombers a season-high eight-game winning streak, was Juan Soto not taking his position in rightfield in the top of the sixth inning after a 56-minute rain delay.

The Yankees announced “left forearm discomfort” as the reason, something after the game Soto said he has been trying to “grind through” the last 1 ½ to two weeks.

“Not at all,” Soto, who will be sent for an MRI on Friday, said, asked if there had been anything he could trace as the source of the discomfort. “I actually just woke up one day, felt the tightness and the discomfort in my forearm, and we’ve been working on it and we’ve been trying to get away with it. And it hasn’t (gone away).”

Soto, who was evaluated Thursday night at the Stadium by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad, said the discomfort wasn’t any worse in-game Thursday. It was determined by all involved that returning after sitting nearly an hour because of the rain was the most prudent step to take.

Which isn’t to say there’s no concern.

“Obviously, you take a player out of the game, you take a player the caliber of Juan out of a game, there’s always concern about that,” Aaron Boone said. “But also hoping that we were just being cautious here on a long night with the delay.”

Boone said it’s “too early” to say whether Soto will need a few days off or if there will be a forthcoming stint on the IL. Outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez, whose 20-day rehab was just extended 10 days – to be continued with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre – would be an option should an IL stint be necessary, though that’s not automatic.

“We’re getting way ahead of ourselves,” Boone said of both a Soto IL stint and the possibility of Dominguez coming up.

Though Aaron Judge’s monster month of May, which has continued into June, received the appropriate amount of attention, Soto by far was the most consistent producer on offense. Soto entered Thursday having reached base in 55 of his 63 games and slashing .319/.422/.605. He came into the day leading the sport in times on base (121) and second in on-base percentage (.422), slugging (.605) and OPS (1.027).

As for the game, the Yankees (45-19), winners in 20 of their last 25 games, made up for a rare off night from one of their starters. Marcus Stroman, 5-2 with a 2.73 ERA coming in, allowed a season-high five runs over 4 2⁄3 innings. The righthander allowed six hits, including two homers, and two walks.

Carlos Correa hit the first homer, a blast with two outs in the first inning, to give the Twins (33-29) a 1-0 lead, an advantage quickly erased when the seldom-used Trent Grisham, playing in just his 22nd game, hit a two-run homer off Jorge Lopez in the bottom of the second. Grisham started in center, flanked by Aaron Judge in left and Soto in right. Judge shifted to right after the Soto injury and Verdugo went to left.

The 2-1 lead did not last long as Christian Vazquez led off the third with a homer.

Lopez completely lost his command in the bottom half, walking Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton to load the bases. After Anthony Rizzo struck out, Gleyber Torres cue-balled a 1-and-2 sinker down the first-base line, the two-run double making it 4-2. Austin Wells’ sacrifice fly to center brought in Stanton to make it 5-2.

Anthony Volpe, who made a couple of highlight reel plays at short, reached on an infield single to short with one out in the fourth and Judge walked with two outs. With Stanton at the plate, Volpe and Judge executed a double steal and the former came home when Vazquez’s throw to third skipped into leftfield for an error. Stanton scalded a single back up the middle to bring in Judge for a 7-2 lead.

Stroman gave two back in the fifth and a third came across when Ian Hamilton allowed an inherited runner to score. But Hamilton, Victor Gonzalez and Luke Weaver got the ball to Clay Holmes, who pitched a scoreless ninth for his 18th save in 21 chances.

Not surprisingly, though, Soto’s departure dominated postgame talk.

“I think everyone’s a little concerned,” Stroman said. “Hopefully he’s all right. Just going to put all the good energy in the world…I think he’ll be back.”