About Last Night: Twins Top Yanks
- Andrew Hefner
- Aug 14
- 4 min read
by Andrew Hefner
August 14, 2025
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The Big Story
A rain-soaked field and an ace on the bump for the away team spelled disaster for the Yankees last night as they fell to the Minnesota Twins 4-1, the first loss to the Twins since April 25th, 2023.
The young flamethrower Cam Schlittler took the mound for New York and threw what was, all things considered, an impressive outing. The first run of the game for Minnesota, and only run off of Schlittler, came in the fourth as the Twins’ star outfielder, Byron Buxton, was able to double and then be driven in by Luke Keaschall. Schlittler only gave up two hits and had six strikeouts over five innings of work. He was only at 86 pitches when taken out, though, and it seems that his pitch limit has been strict since his call-up to the majors.
Cody Bellinger put the Yankees up early on a solo shot off Twins' ace Joe Ryan in the third, but as previously mentioned, the Twins quickly shot back. The home run was the first run in support of Cam Schlittler in a start since July 29th, and was the only run of the game for New York.
Yerry De los Santos replaced Schlittler in the sixth and quickly surrendered two singles before allowing a Cody Clemens double to put the Twins up 3-1. Mark Leiter Jr. would succeed him and inherit the runner who would later score on a Royce Lewis double, which would leave Minnesota with a 4-1 lead.
Joe Ryan had an incredible performance for the Twins, going 6.2 innings of one-run ball and striking out seven along the way.
Devin Williams had a solid one-inning outing, continuing to perform well in low-pressure situations.
In the seventh, controversy struck as Anthony Volpe was able to double and eventually make his way to third, but with lefty Austin Wells stepping up to the plate, the Twins opted for lefty Kody Funderburk to make his way out of the bullpen. With a non-ideal lefty-lefty matchup, Aaron Boone made the curious decision not to pinch hit for Wells, despite there being two available catchers and Paul Goldschmidt ready. However, postgame, it had been announced that Goldschmidt will likely be heading to the IL with a knee injury, explaining the reason for not putting in a pinch hitter. Wells struck out looking to end the inning.
The Yankees ended the night with a Ben Rice double play in the bottom of the ninth, and a Jazz Chisholm groundout.
Player of the Game
Joe Ryan was outstanding as the Yankees just could not figure him out last night.
Final Line: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Yankees Player of the Game
Cam Schlittler had another solid outing in his young career, as the velocity on his pitches has been nasty for opposing hitters.
Final Line: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Notable Performances
Cody Bellinger: 1-3, HR, RBI
Anthony Volpe: 1-3, 2B
Mark Leiter Jr: 1.0 IP, 1 H
Devin Williams: 1.0 IP, 1 K
Camilo Doval: 1.0 IP, 2 K
Better to Forget
Yerry De los Santos: 0.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER
Austin Wells: 0-3, K
Jazz Chisholm: 0-4, 2 K
Aaron Judge: 0-4, K
My Take
I do not really have much to say about this once… Joe Ryan is just really good, and there is a reason the Twins allowed him to be one of the few they did not deal away at the deadline. He is nasty and has ridiculous control over his pitches. The Yankees, being where they are right now, were just not good enough to have a solid game against him.
I wish that Yerry De los Santos was not the first option out of the bullpen, especially with an off day coming today. Aaron Boone has seemed to be very limiting over bullpen usage even with days off, and I think that it is really hurting more than helping. De los Santos has been great this season, do not get me wrong, but better planning could have avoided the ugly loss.
The Paul Goldschmidt news is not great, but at least we know why Wells was not pinch-hit for now. I am hoping that the correct decision will be made to bring up Spencer Jones and have Bellinger play first in the meantime. I think Jones’ time has definitely now come, and he will be a valuable bat either off the bench or even starting every day at this point.
Overall, not the worst loss I’ve had to cover this year, but this team needs to be better and really just wake up.
Next Up
The Yankees will have a trip to St. Louis today as the first matchup of the weekend slate will take place tomorrow (Friday) night with Luis Gil on the mound versus Andre Pallante for the Cardinals. The game will be at 8:15 EST on the YES Network.
Oh, BTW, on the way to the subway from the Stadium after the game, we did smell ganja on the plaza. If it's outside, I don't know that it runs afoul of the law or what the Yankees might do about it, but the stench (now ubiquitous in NYC) is revolting.
On to 2026! This team is not making the playoffs. They will lose at least 2 in St Louis this weekend, so there really isn't any need to rehash all of the grumbling about this year.
I just watched part of the replay on YES. It's amazing that Girardi brought up some of the things I did about Schlittler's hard working 4th & 5th, then about how they pitch in the minors. But Schlittler did do it at least once this year, his last 2 starts in AA. And further, the Yankees have started doing it a lot more regularly that the Tuesday SP also goes on Sunday. Heck ERC just did it against the ultra stacked AA Mets and pitched a combined 13 shutout innings and getting 2 wins.
Amazon game, I didn't see it. Radio night. Made zero sense. Schlitter 86 pitches, 2 hits, 1 run, and they pull him? At some point, these analytic people need to go away. The kid barely broke a sweat. Hes 24 years old! Another in game pitching decision that back fired on them. Seems like that happens 4 out of 5 nights.
Now for the game, who made the decision to not have Boone tell the public in his pre-game presser about Goldschmidt's possible unavailability?
I get why Schlittler was done after 5. 35 pitches after 3, 30 pitches in the 4th, a very fast bottom of the 4th, then another 21 pitches in the 5th. Standard industry is 15 PPI for a SP. I've always said that if you took away the pitch count from the broadcast, with it only in the box score, I bet most of the SP would still be pulled somewhere between 90-105 pitches, because they'd be done. This is where a whole combo of things come into place - the pitch clock (a pitcher never ge…