Yankees' Clarke Schmidt goes 8 innings for first time to complete sweep of Twins

MINNEAPOLIS — Aaron Boone said Thursday morning it hasn’t necessarily been a matter of “trust” when it comes to allowing Clarke Schmidt to pitch deep into games.

Even though Schmidt himself used the word multiple times after his previous start last Friday in St. Petersburg after tying his career best in throwing 6 2/3 innings against the Rays.

And even though Boone has, more times than not, in Schmidt’s brief time as a big-league starter, put himself in danger of a muscle pull reaching for the dugout phone to get a reliever up in the bullpen when the righthander allows a baserunner from the fifth inning on.

“I know I’m going to go out there and earn his trust,” Schmidt said of Boone after his scoreless outing at Tropicana Field. “It’s just a matter of continuing to go out there and show that I can do it. Eventually, I’ll leave him with no other choice.”

Six days later, Schmidt didn’t.

The righthander was so good — and pitch efficient — Thursday afternoon, Boone not only allowed him to complete seven innings, he let Schmidt try for eight.

That worked out well, too.

Turning in by far the best outing of his young career as a starter, Schmidt completely throttled the Twins over eight scoreless innings as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep with a 5-0 victory in front of 31,569 at Target Field.

“Obviously, you kind of have to earn that right to stay in those games and earn that right to be able to face lineups three times and earn that trust factor,” Schmidt said after the Yankees improved to 30-15 with the victory, the club’s 11th in their last 14 games. “That’s something I’m trying to every time out there and make them feel comfortable giving me the ball in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Definitely a step in the right direction these past two starts for sure.”

Schmidt (5-1, 2.49) allowed three hits and struck out eight and did not walk a batter in throwing 103 pitches, also a career high.

Having finished off the Twins (24-19) in the eighth, Schmidt, whose uber-confidence in himself has been a source of amusement in the Yankees clubhouse (in a good-natured way) for several years now, naturally lobbied to go the full nine.

“I just think he wants to complete every game, shutout, that’s his expectation,” Boone said with a smile of the meaning to Schmidt of busting through the seven-innings barrier. “I know it means a lot to him…he came right to me (after the eighth), ‘let me finish it, let me finish it.’ I was pretty convicted at that point, but I didn’t even consider it (removing him) in the seventh.”

As Schmidt came off the mound after the seventh, the first player out of the dugout to greet him, complete with a quick hug of congratulations, was Marcus Stroman (the two became close early in spring training).

“I’m his biggest fan,” Stroman said postgame. “His stuff’s just so elite. I feel like we’re very similar in terms of confidence, mentality. I feel like he always wants to the ball. I feel like that’s not always the case in this game or in sports. So to be around him and see his progression to see how good he is, that hypes me up more than people know.”

Aaron Judge, who hit a 467-foot homer Wednesday night and reached base five times (three doubles and a walk to go with the home run), doubled twice and walked once Thursday in continuing to rebound from his rough first month.

Judge is 19-for-42 (.452) with five homers, nine doubles, 11 RBIs and a 1.590 OPS in his last 12 games.

The Yankees, whose pitching allowed no further runs to the Twins in the series after Ryan Jeffers homered off Carlos Rodon to lead off Tuesday’s game, gave Schmidt the lead before he threw a pitch.

Anthony Volpe extended his hitting streak to nine games five pitches in, smacking a 95-mph fastball just over the wall in left, his sixth homer making it 1-0.

Gleyber Torres’ RBI double and Anthony Rizzo’s groundout, which brought in Alex Verdugo, later in the inning made it 3-0.

Torres, suddenly hot, doubled and scored in the sixth on Austin Wells’ RBI single and Verdugo’s sacrifice fly in the seventh brought in Juan Soto, who walked with one out and went to third on Judge’s second double, to make it 5-0.

Still, Schmidt’s dominant performance dominated clubhouse talk afterward.

“It’s been so fun watching his progression over the past couple of seasons,” Judge said. “I’m looking forward to more outings like today in the future.”