About Last Night: MIN 7, NYY 0

By: Ethan Semendinger

September 16th, 2025

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Judge and Rodon are on path to honors, but the Twins didn't need to worry about either as they routed the Yankees.

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson (7-4, 4.31 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Carlos Rodon (16-9, 3.11 ERA)

• Save: N/A

• Home Runs (New York): N/A

• Home Runs (Minnesota): Brooks Lee (15)

Big Story - Ahead of the game yesterday, two bits of news came out about current Yankees players that I would like to highlight.

First, the Roberto Clemente Award nominees from each MLB franchise were announced, with Carlos Rodon being the candidate. From the announcement article on MLB.com:

"Rodón and his wife Ashley have used their own ordeal with starting a family as the impetus to help others going through similar struggles. Last year, they founded the Carlos Rodón Foundation, which is dedicated to aiding couples facing pregnancy complications and difficulties relating to infertility. They also created the “Willow Grant” -- named in honor of their daughter Willow -- which annually offers $10,000-$20,000 to 25 couples who are still pursuing their goal of starting a family after experiencing miscarriages or pregnancy loss. This past June, Carlos also volunteered at Bottomless Closet, a New York City-based organization dedicated to providing women of limited means and challenging circumstances with a blueprint for entering the workforce."

Other notable players who are on the list of nominees include Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh Pirates), Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers), Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks), Kyle Tucker (Chicago Cubs), Francisco Lindor (New York Mets), Bobby Witt Jr. (Kansas City Royals), and former Yankee Mike Tauchman (Chicago White Sox).

If you'd like to read more on other players and vote for a winner, you can check the link above.

Additionally, the Yankees received an honor by the way of Aaron Judge earning his 14th career Player of the Week award after putting together a .450/.560/1.200 triple-slash built off 9 hits (in 20 at-bats), 9 runs scored, 5 home runs, 5 RBI's, and 5 walks in 6 games. Congrats to the Captain!

Outside of that, last night was also the league-wide celebration of Roberto Clemente, of which the following Yankees wore 21 in his honor: Aaron Judge (2023 Winner), Giancarlo Stanton (2020 nominee), Paul Goldschmidt (2024 nominee), Carlos Rodon (2025 nominee).

Anyway, here was the Yankees' line-up to start a 3-game weekday series against the Twins:

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Player of the Game -

• None

Notable Performances -

• Trent Grisham: 0-2, 2 BB's, 1 K

• Aaron Judge: 0-1, 3 BB's

• Carlos Rodon: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 4 K's, Loss

• Camilo Doval: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 0 K's

• Tim Hill: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 0 K's

Better to Forget -

• Luke Weaver: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 5 R (5 ER), 2 BB's, 0 K's

• Cody Bellinger: 0-4, 2 K's

• Giancarlo Stanton: 0-4, 4 K's

• Jazz Chisholm: 0-4, 2 K's

• Ryan McMahon: 0-3, 2 K's

• Austin Wells: 0-3, 1 K

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The Game(s) - It was weird to see a start time for the Yankes game at 7:40 PM (EDT), but that did allow me to also get to watch the first quarter of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Houston Texans MNF game on ESPN. So, I'm going to try something crazy and attempt to highlight both that game and the Yankees game in this post. (Football highlights will be on the right.)

Quarter One: Bucs (7) - Texans (10)

It was a strong first quarter of the MNF game, which featured consistent scoring drives and a nice early back-and-forth. The Houston Texans were first to get the ball, driving 64 yards in 8 plays with two 20+ yard throws to quickly go up 7-0 (TD for Nico Collins). The Tampa Bay Bucs responded with a 12 play, 75 yard touchdown drive of their own (TD for Ryan Miller). The final full drive was a 9 play, 54 yard move down the field for a field goal.

Innings 1 - 2: Yankees (0) - Twins (0)

The Yankees were the first to get on the scoreboard...but just not with runs. Through the first two innings, neither the Yankees or Twins were able to score, but the Yankees did get the first walk (Judge, top 1), the first hit (Goldschmidt single, top 2), and the first stolen base (McMahon, top 2). The Twins match with a walk and stolen base in the bottom of the second, but nothing came of anything...yet.

Quarter Two: Bucs (14) - Texans (10)

The Buccaneers ended the first quarter with the ball and continued the scoring ways, driving 72 yards in 19 plays towards their second touchdown (TD for Emeka Egbuka). After this, both teams traded back-and-forth between 4 straight drives that ended in punts before the Texans took a kneel down with 2 seconds left to end the first half.

Inning 3: Yankees (0) - Twins (1)

As the football game was in halftime, the Yankees and Twins were able to get through the third inning. In that third inning, the Twins were officially the first to get on the board, thanks to a lead-off double, single, and RBI groundout.

Quarter Three: Bucs (14) - Texans (10)

Coming out of the half, the game did not change much in the third quarter. Another four straight drives ending in punts took up almost the entire quarter. The Buccaneers had a drive towards the end, but it resulted in a missed field goal.

Innings 4 - 6: Yankees (0) - Twins (2)

After watching punt ball for nearly half the football game, I was hoping that the Yankees would provide a good escape with something enjoyable to watch. In a few words, the Yankees game was not an escape, as they let up another run on a Brooks Lee solo home run in the fifth. For the Yankees, they collected a double (Caballero) and walk (Judge) in these innings.

Quarter Four: Bucs (20) - Texans (19)

The Texans started the fourth quarter with a turnover on downs, but then were able to get the ball back on a blocked punt, leading to a field goal to bring the game within 1 at 14-13. They then worked the Buccaneers to another punt with a huge 53 yard return which led to a quick 3 play, 26 yard touchdown drive (TD for Nick Chubb) for the lead, but missed on a two-point attempt. With just over 2 minutes remaining, the Buccaneers got the ball back and Baker Mayfield led a 16 play, 80 yard touchdown drive (TD for Rachaad White) to retake the lead while leaving just 6 seconds on the clock. That final two minutes was AWESOME to watch.

(Does anybody else think that what Baker Mayfield has been for the Bucs is similar to what Didi Gregorius was for the Yankees? Both guys had to come in to an impossible job by replacing a legend (Tom Brady and Derek Jeter) and both have provided incredibly entertaining gameplay and with extremely likeable personalities. Baker is obviously more important to the Bucs than Didi was for the Yankees, but I think there's a fun similarity there.)

Innings 7 - 9: Yankees (0) - Twins (7)

Well, that was a lot of fun football to watch. I hope I didn't miss anything in the Yankees game.

...they went down 7-0? Well, that's a good thing I missed the bottom of the seventh inning. To recap: Luke Weaver came in to start the inning in relief of Carlos Rodon and immediately allowed back-to-back doubles (Twins up 3-0). After a sacrifice bunt, Weaver than walked two more to load the bases before allowing a third double to clear the bases (Twins up 6-0). Camilo Doval came in to relieve Weaver, and he allowed an RBI single (Twins up 7-0) before getting a groundball for a double play to end the inning.

The 8th and 9th innings went by quick with the Yankees unable to do anything but work some walks (Grisham and Judge).

Yankees lose 7-0.

And, no. I'm not staying up to watch the Chargers and Raiders. I like the Bucs and Baker enough to watch them. I'm indifferent to the Chargers, Raiders, Herbert, and Geno Smith.

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Next Up - The Yankees will continue their 3-game weekday series tonight against the Minnesota Twins, in the Twin Cities with the game set to start at 7:40 PM (EDT). Cam Schlittler will take the mound for the Yankees (3-3, 3.05 ERA) against Zebby Matthews (4-5, 5.06 ERA). The game will be broadcast on YES.