Yankees rally past Twins to clinch postseason berth

The Yankees took down the Twins 8-3 and punched their ticket to the postseason for the 61st time in the history of the franchise. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Dean Kremer. 

“It's a great feeling,” Aaron Judge said. “This is why I came back to New York in 2023, you know, to get an opportunity to win a World Series every single year. You know, we got a special group here, special guys that we're fighting for each other in everybody's corner, and we know we just continue to get better. So excited to get back in the postseason; we're going to celebrate tonight, but we know what's ahead of us. We got a lot of work to do.”

Ben Rice worked a walk to lead off the ballgame, but Aaron Judge bounced into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play. 

Warren walked the first batter he faced, followed by a lineout, to set the Twins up with runners on first and second with nobody out. But Warren induced a lineout, a flyout and recorded a strikeout thanks to a successful ABS challenge from Austin Wells that erased a walk. 

With two outs in the top of the third inning, Jose Caballero went deep to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. 

Warren put together a shutdown bottom half of the third inning and notched his third strikeout of the ballgame. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Warren worked a 1-2-3 inning thanks to another great ABS challenge from Wells that changed a walk into his fourth strikeout of the night. 

Warren allowed back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the fifth inning. But picked up a strikeout and induced a 5-3 double play to help work into and out of trouble. 

Ryan McMahon bobbled a ground ball at third base, which would have been the second out of the inning. Then, with two outs Goergoe Lombard Jr. couldn't come up with a line drive just off his glove. Emmanuel Rodriguez followed with a two-run triple that went under Spencer Jones' glove in center field to give the Twins a 2-1 lead. Michael Fulmer replaced Warren on the mound and picked up the final out of the sixth inning. 

Final line for Warren: 5.2 innings pitched, five hits allowed, two runs, neither earned due to the McMahon error, walked two, and struck out six on 92 pitches. He threw his sweeper 27% of the time, the fastball 25%, the changeup 21%, the sinker 17%, the curveball 9%, and the slider 1%. Warren topped out at 95.7 mph, sitting at 93.8 mph on the heater, and had six whiffs. 

“Super exciting,” Warren said. “Obviously, just going out there trying to, you know, put us in a position to win, and we got it done.”

Fulmer came back out for the bottom of the seventh and picked up the first two outs, then walked a batter to end his night. Tim Hill took over and picked up the final out of the inning. 

Lombard led off the eighth inning with a double into the left-center field gap. McMahon followed with an infield single to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Caballero came through with an RBI single right back up the middle to tie the ballgame. Anthony Volpe, who pinch-ran for McMahon and Caballero, pulled off a double steal to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Rice gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead with a two-run single just past the drawn-in infield. The next batter, Cody Bellinger, singled, then Aaron Judge crushed a three-run home run to left field to extend the Yankees' lead to 7-2, his first home run since returning from the IL. 

“I was just trying to do a job there,” Judge said. “You got guys on base, guys in scoring position, you know, either move them over or drive them in. So I'm just happy to add some more runs there and kind of let our pitchers do the thing.”

Hill came back out for the bottom of the eighth inning and allowed a solo shot to Josh Bell to cut the Yankees' lead to 7-3. Volpe then botched a routine groundball that was somehow ruled a hit, and then Hill plunked a batter to end his night. John Schreiber came in relief for Hill and picked up the third out on just one pitch. 

Wells got that run straight back in the top of the ninth with a no-doubt solo shot to deep right field to extend the Yankees lead to 8-3. 

Schreiber came back out for the bottom of the ninth and worked a scoreless inning to give the Yankees the win, as they also punched their ticket to the postseason a couple of innings earlier thanks to the Blue Jays losing. 

“It's so exciting,” Jones said of making it to the postseason for the first time in his career. “I mean, that's the whole point of playing and being a part of this team is to go to the postseason, so this is just one step for where we want to get to. I'm really excited.”

The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Max Fried on the mound facing off against Bailey Ober. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Great come-from-behind win for the Yankees. Warren was solid tonight; he was working around base runners all night long, but he also didn't get much help from McMahon in the sixth inning. Warren’s ERA over his last three starts is 0.96, the best three-game stretch he has had in his career; his season ERA is down to 3.89. Fulmer did his job and pitched a scoreless inning. Hill allowed a home run, and a couple of base runners on top of that; his ERA is now up to 4.79, as he has not been good for a couple of months now. Schreiber picked up four big outs; he has been great since the Yankees picked him up. The Yankees offense was quiet for the first seven innings tonight, but exploded for six runs in the eighth inning. The Yankees record when scoring five runs or more on the season is now 55-6. Rice had a huge game with a couple of hits and a walk, including a go-ahead two-run single in that big eighth inning. Judge crushed his first home run since his walkoff against the Rays on May 24. Wells crushed his second home run in as many days and had a great night behind the plate with a couple of huge ABS challenges. Caballero had a big night with a couple of hits and RBIs, and also crushed a solo shot. And the Yankees punched their ticket to the postseason, which is a great accomplishment, but it is far from the ultimate goal this year. On to tomorrow, the Yankees better not be hungover and come out flat tomorrow from their postseason celebration; they need to win as many wins as they can get down the stretch and try to catch the Rays. 

“I feel like we played them very well this year,” Cam Schlittler on trying to catch the Rays. “We still got a good shot to win the division. So again, we just got to stay on this, take the momentum into the next few days, and into Arizona.”