Yankees beat Twins 8-5 for 8th straight win for series sweep
Trent Grisham homered and had three RBIs, doubling his totals in both categories, and the New York Yankees completed a season sweep of the Minnesota Twins with an 8-5 victory Thursday night for their eighth straight win.
New York slugger Juan Soto was removed with left forearm discomfort following a 56-minute rain delay before the sixth inning.
Gleyber Torres bounced a two-run double inside first base for the Yankees (45-19), who broke a tie with Philadelphia for the best record in the majors. They moved to 25-6 in the last 31 games and extended their longest winning streak since a nine-game run in June 2022.
On deck this weekend, the Yankees renew an old October rivalry when they welcome Shohei Ohtani and the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers to the Bronx for a highly anticipated interleague series loaded with star power.
"I think it's going to be an amazing atmosphere," manager Aaron Boone said.
Gold Glove shortstop Anthony Volpe made two outstanding defensive plays in the late innings, sprawling to snag Carlos Correa's sharp grounder with two on to end the eighth. Volpe also manufactured a run with his speed, stealing third and scoring on catcher Christian Vázquez's throwing error after reaching on an infield single.
Giancarlo Stanton walked three times and hit an RBI single. Austin Wells contributed a sacrifice fly as the AL East leaders finished 6-0 versus Minnesota, a perennial Yankees punching bag. After outscoring the Twins 36-12 this year, New York is 123-44 against them since 2002 — including the playoffs.
Correa homered and knocked in two runs for Minnesota. Vázquez, the No. 9 batter, also went deep.
Handed a 7-2 lead after four innings, Yankees starter Marcus Stroman was unable to get through five.
Minnesota scored three times in the fifth, including an RBI double by Max Kepler on a flyball that landed just fair in the left-field corner. Aaron Judge, making a rare start in left instead of center, jogged toward the ball and pulled up well before it dropped, apparently thinking it would float foul.
A confounded Stroman stuck out his hands for a moment, wondering what happened.
Stroman was charged with five runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings, just the 10th time this season a Yankees starter failed to last five. The right-hander was 3-0 with a 1.01 ERA in his previous four outings.
New York starters had permitted three runs or fewer in a franchise-record 22 consecutive games, going 17-2 with a 1.55 ERA during that span.
Luke Weaver (4-1) worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Clay Holmes got three outs for his 18th save.
Grisham added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to go with his two-run homer on the first pitch he saw from Pablo López (5-6) in the second.
Working carefully to New York's dangerous sluggers in the 2-3-4 spots, the All-Star righty issued a career-high six walks — all to Soto, Judge and Stanton — in four innings. That got López in trouble in the third, when consecutive full-count walks to those three hitters loaded the bases with nobody out in a 2-all game. All three runners scored.
Grisham, batting ninth in his 15th start this season, entered hitting .051 with one homer and three RBIs.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Twins: Oft-injured 3B Royce Lewis and CF Byron Buxton were rested. Lewis returned Tuesday after missing 58 games with a strained right quadriceps. The plan is for him to maybe play all three games in Pittsburgh this weekend, manager Rocco Baldelli said. Lewis, who got hurt on opening day, is the first player in franchise history to homer in each of his first three games of a season.
Yankees: LF Alex Verdugo was initially rested after running face first into the left-center fence to make a catch Wednesday night. He entered for Soto in the sixth, with Judge switching from left field to Soto's spot in right. ... 3B DJ LeMahieu also was rested.
UP NEXT
Twins: RHP Joe Ryan (4-4, 3.38 ERA) starts Friday night in Pittsburgh against RHP Mitch Keller (7-3, 3.42) in the opener of a three-game series. Ryan gave up four homers over five innings last Saturday in a 5-2 loss at Houston.
Yankees: RHP Cody Poteet (2-0, 2.45 ERA) makes his 12th major league start and third for New York. He faces Dodgers rookie RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2, 3.32), pursued by the Yankees in the offseason before he signed a $325 million contract with Los Angeles. Yamamoto met with the Yankees in California and then New York while they were recruiting him. "I felt like we were very much in the mix and we had really good dialogue. Really liked him," Boone said. "He seemed very comfortable in his skin. Very easy going, easy way about him. Engaging."