With the Yankees fresh off another overnight flight and their lineup looking a little sleepy, the Bombers suffered a rare loss to the Twins on Monday at Target Field.
Simeon Woods Richardson led the way in Minnesota’s 7-0 victory, as the right-hander struck out a career-high 11 batters over six scoreless innings. The former Mets prospect also held the Yankees to two hits while walking three batters over 92 pitches.
Woods Richardson had completed six innings just one other time this season. But with the 24-year-old pitching the game of his young career, the Yankees began baseball’s easiest remaining stretch of schedule with a loss to a team that they had previously gone 125-45 against since 2002.
With 12 games left in the regular season and the Blue Jays beating the Rays in extras on Monday, the Yankees are now five games behind Toronto, which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker, in the American League East.
The Yankees also lead the Red Sox by a game for the AL’s top Wild Card spot.
The Yankees, who totaled 14 strikeouts, were also hurt by José Caballero in the series-opener, as the shortstop, making his sixth straight start in place of Anthony Volpe, made two defensive mishaps in the third inning.
While Caballero officially didn’t make any errors, he initially couldn’t handle a sharp short-hop up the middle, resulting in a single with nobody out. He then ruined a potential inning-ending double play, taking some unnecessary steps before flipping the ball to Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base. While Caballero got the out at second, Austin Martin beat Chisholm’s throw to first, allowing Minnesota’s first run to score.
Caballero was also picked off second base in the fifth inning after doubling, making for a mistake-riddled night after he shined on both sides of the ball in Sunday’s loss to the Red Sox.
The Twins scored their second run in the fifth when Brooks Lee homered off Carlos Rodón. The lefty ended up totaling six innings pitched, five hits, two earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts and 95 pitches.
Luke Weaver, meanwhile, allowed Minnesota to break the game open in the seventh, as Lee pulled an RBI double to right before Martin ripped his own two-bagger with the bases loaded. That scored three.
Luke Keaschall added an RBI single off Camilo Doval before the seventh inning ended, giving Weaver five earned runs on the night.
He had previously permitted five earned runs in his last 3.1 innings.
