Judge, Caballero Fuel Eight-Run Yankee Demolition in Minnesota
New York put up a five-run eighth inning — capped by a 415-foot Aaron Judge three-run bomb — to blow open what had been a tied game and walk out of Minnesota with an 8-3 win. Four different Yankees went deep, and the story of the night was how quickly this game flipped after Minnesota briefly seized control.
For five innings, this looked like it might be Minnesota's night. Jose Caballero gave New York an early edge with a 372-foot solo shot to left in the third, but Will Warren couldn't hold it. In the sixth, Emmanuel Rodriguez laced a triple to center that scored two runs, swinging the home win probability from 34% to 68% in a single at-bat. Just like that, Minnesota led 2-1 and had all the momentum.
Then came the eighth, and New York dismantled the Twins in a hurry. Caballero singled to center to score Lombard Jr. and tie it, then Ben Rice followed with another single to center — Volpe and Caballero both came around to score, making it 4-2. That set the table for Judge, who did what Judge does: a 415-foot shot to left that plated Rice and Bellinger and turned a two-run lead into a five-run cushion at 7-2. Bell answered with a solo homer to right in the bottom half to make it 7-3, but Austin Wells put an exclamation point on the ninth with a 371-foot shot to right that closed the books at 8-3. Four home runs for New York in total. It appears the Yankees simply have too many bats to stay down for long.
On the mound, Warren was efficient if not dominant — 5.2 innings, 5 hits, 0 earned runs, 6 strikeouts — and Michael Fulmer tossed a clean inning of relief. Dean Kremer was arguably the better pitcher on the night for Minnesota, going 5.2 innings and allowing just 1 earned run on 2 hits with 5 strikeouts, but the Twins' bullpen couldn't survive the eighth. Caballero finished 2-for-4 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, and looks like the kind of catalyst at the top of the order that makes New York's lineup genuinely dangerous from front to back. Rice went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI without leaving the yard, which tells you everything about how deep this offense ran tonight.