Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo go deep as Yankees top Twins

MINNEAPOLIS – The Yankees didn’t get the kind of outing from their starter they’ve come to expect of late, and they played one of their sloppiest games of the season in the field.

But with the opposition being the Twins, the result was what it almost always is: a win.

Getting first-inning homers from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees offense set the tone early, paving the way to a 10-4 victory in front of 27,643 at Target Field.

In winning their seventh straight game and 11th in 13 tries, the Yankees (40-15),  improved to an almost hard-to-fathom 110-38 against the Twins since 2002, including the postseason.

Judge hit a two-run blast off Cole Sands in the first – giving the outfielder his MLB-leading 22nd homer – and Stanton added his 12th later in the inning for a 3-0 lead.

“That’s what our team’s about,” Judge said. “We’ve got a great starting rotation, the run they’ve been on has been impressive… [Jameson] Taillon went out there and battled. We’re just happy to pick him up with some early runs and late.”

Taillon, who came in 6-1 with a 2.30 ERA, saw his streak of 10 straight starts to begin the season having allowed three earned runs or fewer come to an end. The righthander gave up four runs and nine hits, --- both season hight --- over four innings--plus, ending the Yankees’ streak of getting at least six innings and two earned runs or fewer from their starter at six straight.

“We can win in a lot of different ways and tonight’s just another one of those examples,” said Taillon, who did well getting ahead of hitters but struggled putting them away, allowing seven two-strike hits. “I didn’t get my job done but the bullpen and offense definitely got their jobs done. Sometimes the starting staff’s going to carry us, sometimes it’s going to be the bullpen, sometimes it’s going to be defense, sometimes we’re just going to bang. Tonight was one of those nights where the bullpen and lineup came through.”   

Anthony Rizzo’s three-run homer in the seventh – after DJ LeMahieu’s third hit of the night, which gave the infielder 1,500 for his career, and an intentional walk issued to Judge – blew open a close game, making it 8-4.  

RBI singles in the eighth by Jose Trevino and Joey Gallo, who had two hits and a walk, made it 10-4.

Every regular had at least one hit as the Yankees, who drew nine walks, racked up 14 hits on the night. LeMahieu finished 3-for-4 with two walks and Judge, Aaron Hicks and Gallo each added two hits.

The Yankees, who had not committed an error since May 26, had three Tuesday but, again, with the Twins (32-25) in the other dugout, it mattered not.

Two batters in against Sands (0-2, 8.49), who allowed four runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings, the Yankees had the lead.

LeMahieu lined the first pitch of the night into center and Judge followed by launching a 2-and-2 fastball to center, his 18th homer in his last 35 games making it 2-0.

The blast also improved Judge to 49-for-145 (.338) with 19 homers, 39 RBIs and 38 runs over his previous 38 games to that point.

After Rizzo struck out, Stanton destroyed a 2-and-2 slider into the second deck in left-center – not a place that sees a ton of baseballs in this park – making it 3-0.

The Twins would close multi-run deficits to 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4 but each time the Yankees tacked on, until making it a laugher late.

“That was huge. Big night for them right out of the gate,” Aaron Boone said of the offense. “They [the Twins] strung some good at-bats together to kind of hang around in the game and good to see us just keep adding on. I thought good at-bats up and down the order. A really good, strong offensive performance by everyone.”