The good news? Minnesota finally scored some runs off the New York Yankees and Royce Lewis hit his third homer in only three games this year. The bad news? It came way too late, the Yankees scored a heck of a lot more and beat the Twins again 9-5.
That's five straight this year for New York over the Twins and only one more chance to win a game in the season series Thursday.
Carlos Rodón retired his first 16 batters and won a career-best sixth straight start Wednesday night, helping the Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins 9-5 for their seventh straight victory.
"We were offering at a lot of pitches," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after the game. "That's not our objective, it's not what we want to do. I think you, you have to take more of a line drive approach. You have to see his fastball deeper and hit it the other way in order to make good decisions on the slider. And the slider, all his pitches, were effective today. So it's not one thing that he did, they were all working. They played off of each other well."
Rodón is 8-2 with a 3.08 ERA, striking out 71 and walking 20 in 73 innings with a .217 opponents’ batting average. The 31-year-old left-hander has 39 strikeouts on sliders, 24 on fastballs, six on changeups and two on cutters.
“All his pitches were effective today, so it’s not one thing that he did. They were all working. I think they played off of each other well,” Baldelli said. “We were swinging a little bit before we knew what he was coming with.”
Rodón struggled in his first spring training appearance last year and was diagnosed with a strained left forearm. He was slowed by back stiffness in April, had an injection on May 9 and didn’t resume throwing bullpen sessions until May 29.
For the Twins, it was a big hole to climb out of when started Chris Paddack gave up four quick runs in the first inning.
"Yeah, it's tough to get back in the game when it's four runs, it's a deficit but get to the middle innings and it became eight, it's gonna be hard to win the game," says Baldelli. "I mean, you're gonna win too many games. We continue to play hard, getting a little something going towards the second half of the game. I don't want to start calling things positives and we're not here for positives, we're here to win the game and obviously we're not accomplishing that at the moment."
Then there's Royce Lewis. He's played three games and he's now homered three times. He became the first player in Twins history to homer in his three games of the season. Of course that feat took a full two months to accomplish. Lewis came off the disabled list after severely straining his quad in the season opener and hasn't missed a beat at the plate.
Glass half-full? One more chance to beat the Yankees. Glass half empty? They only have to play the Yankees one more time.
PREVIEW
Minnesota Twins (33-28, third in the AL Central) vs. New York Yankees (44-19, first in the AL East)
New York; Thursday, 6:05 p.m. 5:30 pregame on WCCO Radio and the Audacy App (in-market restrictions apply).
PITCHING PROBABLES: Twins: Pablo Lopez (5-5, 4.84 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 75 strikeouts); Yankees: Marcus Stroman (5-2, 2.73 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 55 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Yankees -145, Twins +121; over/under is 8 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The New York Yankees, on a four-game home winning streak, host the Minnesota Twins.
New York has a 20-8 record at home and a 44-19 record overall. The Yankees have gone 19-5 in games when they did not allow a home run.
Minnesota has a 33-28 record overall and a 17-15 record in road games. The Twins are 10th in the majors with 67 total home runs, averaging 1.1 per game.
The teams play Thursday for the sixth time this season. The Yankees are up 5-0 in the season series.
TOP PERFORMERS: Juan Soto has 11 doubles, three triples and 17 home runs while hitting .319 for the Yankees. Aaron Judge is 14-for-36 with two doubles, a triple and five home runs over the past 10 games.
Ryan Jeffers has 14 doubles and 12 home runs for the Twins. Jose Miranda is 8-for-35 with a double, a triple, two home runs and eight RBI over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Yankees: 8-2, .247 batting average, 2.66 ERA, outscored opponents by 23 runs
Twins: 5-5, .198 batting average, 4.66 ERA, outscored by 10 runs
INJURIES: Yankees: Clarke Schmidt: 15-Day IL (lat), Jon Berti: 10-Day IL (calf), Nick Burdi: 15-Day IL (hip), Jonathan Loaisiga: 60-Day IL (elbow), JT Brubaker: 60-Day IL (elbow), Gerrit Cole: 60-Day IL (elbow), Lou Trivino: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jasson Dominguez: 60-Day IL (elbow), Scott Effross: 60-Day IL (back)
Twins: Justin Topa: 60-Day IL (knee), Brock Stewart: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Daniel Duarte: 60-Day IL (tricep), Zack Weiss: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Anthony DeSclafani: 60-Day IL (elbow)
The Associated Press contributed to this story.