Yankees open up the offense to avoid sweep by Twins

MINNEAPOLIS — Aaron Judge was critical of the Yankees’ offense, himself included, after yet another punchless night by the group Monday night.

“We have to try to jump out early on teams and score early and put the pressure on them,” Judge said. “Right now we’re kind of taking a while getting into the game, and it’s not doing the job. We have to jump on them early.”

It didn’t happen Tuesday in a second straight loss to the Twins.

On Wednesday afternoon, however, Judge, celebrating his 31st birthday, got his wish for early offense.

And the Yankees’ captain was front and center in the effort.

Judge doubled in the first inning, in which his team did not score, but hit a bases-clearing double in the second to highlight a five-run inning in the Yankees' 12-6 win over the Twins in front of 20,511 at Target Field.

“We went out there and executed our plan,” said Judge, who finished 3-for-4 with two doubles, a walk and three RBIs. “I feel like the past couple games, couple series, we’ve been a little passive and almost letting the pitcher dictate the at-bat and dictate the flow of the game. Putting up a five-spot there in the second inning let’s any pitcher, any pitching staff kind of relax and let’s them go to work. And that kind of allows our offense, everybody else, to relax and not feel like they have to step up there and hit a grand slam every single pitch.”

The win ended a three-game losing streak.

The Yankees (14-11), who suffered their first season-series loss to the Twins (14-11) since 2001, kept it going. After Gleyber Torres’ third homer of the season, which came in a six-run fourth, the Yankees were outhitting the Twins 12-2. In the Yankees' previous 12 games, they averaged 2.9 runs and batted .201.

“Good to salvage something here after a couple of tough days,” Aaron Boone said.

The Yankees finished with a season-high 14 hits, including three by Judge and two apiece from Anthony Volpe, Torres, Anthony Rizzo and Willie Calhoun. Judge went 3-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs, while Volpe added three RBIs and Rizzo and Torres both had two.

Judge, the DH Wednesday, jammed both hands – his right primarily – on a head-first slide into third on a steal attempt after his three-run double in the second and, after getting thrown out, disappeared into the dugout with Yankees trainers but stayed in the game.

Was there any question he’d stay in?

“There were talks but we ended those pretty quick,” Judge said. “You can either play or you can’t play. It’s feeling good.”

Minnesota righthander Kenta Maeda (0-4, 9.00 ERA) didn’t help a rotation that came into the day leading the AL in innings pitched, allowing a staggering 10 runs and 11 hits over three-plus innings.

Domingo German was the happy recipient of the offense, though the righthander didn’t pitch that well. German (2-2, 5.54) allowed  six runs,  five hits, including three homers, and two walks over six innings in which he struck out eight. Jose Miranda hit two of the homers, and in the bad-optics department, German plunked the DH with a 1-and-1 curveball in the sixth but nothing more came of it.

“I felt protected with so many runs on the board,” German said through his interpreter. “It’s exciting to see and then you just want to start executing pitches after that.”

German wasn’t nearly as successful in his execution, though, as the offense overall.

“I think everyone’s approach was really, really good,” Volpe said. “Everyone was aggressive. When up and down the lineup you have guys putting together really good at-bats, especially early, allows us to get really aggressive and put the pressure on them.”