About Last Night: Yankees 9, Twins 1

by Derek McAdam

August 13, 2025

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The New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins by a score of 9-1 last night, winning the series and setting them up for a sweep tonight. Here’s a recap of last night’s game.

Quick Stats:

W: Carlos Rodon (12-7): 7 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

L: Travis Adams (1-2): 2.1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K

Home Runs:

NYY: Aaron Judge (38), Anthony Volpe (18), Giancarlo Stanton (12)

The Big Story:

The Yankees came into last night’s game after having taken the first game of the series by a score of 6-2. In a rare occurrence, Aaron Boone sent out the exactly same lineup for the second game in hopes of having similar results as the first.

It did not take long for the Twins to get on the board, as Carlos Rodon loaded the bases in the top of the 1st with no outs. After striking out Luke Keaschall, Royce Lewis grounded into a fielder's choice to make the score 1-0 Twins. But Rodon escaped without further damage in the inning after striking out Kody Clemens.

The Yankees came right back to tie it in the bottom of the inning when Aaron Judge hit a solo home run into the Yankee bullpen, his 38th of the season. It was also his first home run since his return from the IL.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Anthony Volpe hit a three-run home run into the Yankees' bullpen to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead.

After a rough first inning, Rodon had a couple few innings to keep his pitch count below 50 after three innings. After just one inning, his pitch count was at 31. And after five innings, he was at a respectable 70 pitches.

In the 5th, Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run into the left-center field bleachers that cleared the Twins’ bullpen for his 441st career home run, passing Jason Giambi to have the 44th most home runs of all time. The next player up is Dave Kingman, who has 442 career home runs.

With a walk to Ryan Jeffers in the 6th and two outs on the board, Rodon broke a streak of 17 consecutive batters retired, which was a big reason for his pitch count remaining is such great shape. However, Rodon was able to get through the remainder of the inning, as well as the 7th unscathed.

In the bottom of the 7th, Cody Bellinger walked with the bases loaded to give the Yankees a 6-1 lead. Stanton then came to the plate, a triple short of the cycle, and ripped a two-run single to make the new score 8-1.

After a leadoff triple from Jazzs Chisholm in the 8th, J.C. Escarra grounded out to score Chisholm and make the new score 9-1.

Player of the Game:

Giancarlo Stanton continues to put together solid at-bats and has been tremendous over his past 25 games or so.

Notable Performances:

Following Will Warren’s solid start on Monday, Carlos Rodon delivered seven strong innings last night. Aaron Judge also reached base three times, as well as Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Better to Forget:

NONE! Everyone contributed one way or another, so I won’t give this dishonorable mention to anyone, although I’m sure the entire Twins roster would like to forger this loss.

My Take:

The Yankees are in desperate need of wins at this point in the season, and luckily for them, they’re playing the Twins, a team they have dominated for nearly a quarter-century. It was nice to see them take the series win and have an opportunity to go for the sweep tonight.

First, it was nice to see Rodon bounce back from a rough first inning. Had you told me after that inning that he would give the Yankees seven innings, I would not have believed you. But he managed to have several pitch-efficient innings and save the Yankee bullpen. It wasn’t his best start of the year, but it was arguably a top three start.

Here’s an interesting statistic from last night: the Twins led off the game with a base hit, and that was the only hit for the entire game. I didn’t even realize this until I saw the final box score, but the traffic on the bases was pretty much minimal following the first inning.

It was also nice to see Judge get his power stroke back that Yankee fans haven’t seen since his IL return. He’s starting to look much better at the plate, and hopefully things continue to get better for him.

And speaking of getting better… can Stanton be in any better form than he is now? He is playing incredible baseball and is even doing a decent job in the field. Luckily, not many balls have been hit his way, but I’m sure he (or any Yankee fan) isn’t complaining. But at the plate, he looks fantastic. He’s hitting the ball the opposite way and just continues to look better and better. Hopefully, Aaron Boone doesn’t take him out of the lineup today.

This was a solid win for the Yankees, but every win is at this point. They left a good amount of runners on base, but they still pushed nine across. Sure, Minnesota isn’t a great team, but these are games that the Yankees should be winning. They have taken advantage of weaker starting pitching that the Twins have sent out and countered with solid starting performances.

There isn’t much else I can say, besides this was a great game to watch and that hopefully, the Yankees can sweep the Twins before they head out to Missouri.

What’s Next?:

The Yankees are back at it tonight for the final game of this three-game series before they head to St. Louis for a three-game set starting Friday. For tonight’s starting pitching match, Joe Ryan is scheduled to start for the Twins while Cam Schlittler is set to go for the Yankees. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.