Twins Were Tough, But Yankees Win Series

After a sleepy first game loss, the Yankees pounded out 20 runs on 27 hits in the last two to win the series over the Twins and one of the keys, as he has been all season, was Trent Grisham who mashed three home runs to continue his off-the-charts breakthrough season. Lets get to it.

One of the biggest storylines heading into the 2025 season was the arrival of outfielder Jasson Dominguez to the Bronx.

After he teased us in 2023 when he made his Yankees debut and hit four home runs in eight games, he suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery, ending his September call-up and knocking him out for all but 18 games in 2024.

He had been one of the most talked about Yankees prospects in years, so when this season began and Alex Verdugo was mercifully gone, left field was Dominguez’s job to win and sure enough, there he was on Opening Day against Milwaukee with newcomer Cody Bellinger in center and Aaron Judge in right.

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That was supposed to the outfield all season with Trent Grisham back to reprise his role as injury insurance and/or late-game defensive replacement. But in that very first game, we were provided a hint of what was to come, though none of us would have believed it was possible.

Grisham entered in the eighth inning with the Yankees up 4-1 and he went to center, Bellinger slid to left and Dominguez came out because it was clear in spring training that his defense was going to be a problem. And then Grisham singled in his first at bat in the bottom of the eighth, and so began a season that has left us speechless.

Wednesday night, the Yankees won the rubber game against the Twins and Grisham was the hitting star - yes, not the defensive star but the slugging star - as he cracked two homers and drove in four runs to pace a 10-5 victory. That gave him 33 home runs for the season, nearly double his previous high of 17 set in 2022 with the Padres.

The two-time Gold Glove outfielder came into 2025 with a career slash line of .213/.313/.384 for an OPS of .697. That screams late-game defensive replacement and nothing more, but Grisham has been so much more than that this season.

He has pretty much been the starting center fielder since the beginning of May because with Giancarlo Stanton missing the first 2 1/2 months, Aaron Boone was able to rotate the DH spot between the four outfielders and get them all starter playing time. But since Stanton returned in mid-June, it was Dominguez who became the odd man out, not Grisham, because Boone can’t afford to sit him.

“It’s been a massive year for him,” Boone said after Grisham’s latest big game. “Whether he’s going through a little lull or he’s on a hot streak where he’s hitting for power, it’s just a good at-bat and obviously there’s been a lot of big homers he’s hit for us, a lot of big hits.”

By the end of Monday it was sort of feeling like Grisham’s magical ride was careening off the road as he was mired in a 1-for-25 slump and his average was at its lowest point of the year at .236. No worries. As the Yankees scored 20 runs in the final two games, he went 4-for-9 with three homers and seven RBI.

Since Aug. 20, nobody in MLB - not his teammate Judge, nor MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh of the Mariners - has hit more home runs than Grisham’s 12, with eight of those in the past 19 games. And just as important as the home runs, he has finally given Boone someone he can trust to put together strong at bats in the leadoff spot, a problem area on this team for several years.

“Honestly, it’s been amazing,” Bellinger said. “Stability from that spot, he can take you deep, he’ll take his walks, hits the ball really hard. Kind of solidified that (leadoff) spot, which is a really important spot. He does it with ease. It’s been really fun to watch.”

We’ll worry about the offseason when it gets here, but the Yankees have some big decisions to make in the outfield. The first will be on Bellinger because he is almost certainly going to opt out of the final year of his contract and enter free agency. After the great season he’s had - he hit his 29th homer Wednesday - he’s going to get paid nine figures by someone and the Yankees have to decide if they want to be that team.

Grisham will also be a free agent and the Yankees have to determine whether this was a one-off season for him, or is he someone who can continue to produce in this manner and pay him way, way more than he has ever made?

And should the Yankees re-sign both, what then becomes of Dominguez who at 22 years old should be making huge strides if he truly is the great prospect the Yankees have long believed he is.

Sept. 15: Twins 7, Yankees 0

➤ Every game matters. It’s something I have always believed and it doesn’t matter whether it’s the 17-game NFL schedule or the 162-game MLB schedule. Every damn game matters, so losing this one to the sad sack Twins was pretty disappointing. But I am willing to cut the Yankees a little slack because having just finished a tense three-game series at Fenway Park, at the end of what we were calling the 12-game gauntlet, and then having to play Sunday night and fly to Minnesota to play the next night, yeah, this had loss written all over it before it even started.

➤ The Yankees were sleepwalking and it showed as Twins starter Simeon Woods-Richardson - who will never be confused with Bob Gibson - dominated the lineup with six shutout innings allowing just two hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts. And then the Twins bullpen, which is even worse than New York’s, tacked on three scoreless, hitless innings and pushed the whiff count to 14. Brutal.

➤ Carlos Rodon flew ahead to Minnesota so he was fresh and he pitched well - six innings, two runs on five hits and one walk. In the third with a man on third, if Jose Caballaro hadn’t been so slow getting the ball to Jazz Chisholm at second, the Yankees might have turned an inning-ending DP. Instead, the run scored. And then in the fifth Rodon gave up a solo homer to Brooks Lee.

➤ Luke Weaver took over in the seventh, and my God, what a disaster. He faced six men, five reached base on three doubles and two walks, and the only out he recorded came on a sacrifice bunt. All five men eventually scored, the last on a single given up by useless Camilo Doval. And now Weaver has joined the list of relievers who can’t be trusted, and that’s a pretty full list.

➤ In six September appearances, Weaver has given up 10 earned runs in 3.2 innings which computes to a 24.55 ERA.

➤ Giancarlo Stanton, who whiffed in all four at bats, was in a 6-for-51 nightmare with 27 strikeouts by night’s end. This, of course, is what Stanton does because when he goes into a slump, he can look like he’s never hit a baseball before in his life.

What they said in Monday’s clubhouse

• Weaver: “That was trash. The body just wasn’t on time. It wasn’t aligned with what I was trying to execute and do. I felt like I was fighting myself the whole time. Mentally, I was just trying to overcome it, have a good mindset and stay within myself. Those two things just weren’t coming together. I’m not in any pain or anything along those lines. It’s just an energy, a lack of togetherness with the body. Those things happen. But it’s just inexcusable. We got to find a way to get it done and overcome that.”

• Ryan McMahon: “It’s the game of baseball and it’ll humble you real quick. But we got to get back to it.”

Sept. 16: Yankees 10, Twins 9

➤ Once again, we were given another reminder - not that we needed one - about how bad the Yankees bullpen is. They led this game 10-1 going to the bottom of the fifth, and then starter Cam Schlittler suddenly began to suck and Minnesota scored three runs and sent him to the clubhouse one out shy of qualifying for the win.

➤ It was disappointing because in the first inning he got two quick outs, then walked two and gave up an RBI single. And after he retired 11 in a row, he lost it in the fifth as he gave up a two-run homer to James Outman, walked three men, threw a run-scoring wild pitch, and allowed three stolen bases.

➤ That meant Boone had to turn to his deplorable relief corps. Fernando Cruz got the last out of the fifth, but Boone decided to pull him and let Ryan Yarbrough try to finish the game which, as the long reliever is his job. But he was not long for this game. He faced five men in the sixth and this is how it went - double, RBI single, two-run homer by Ryan Fitzgerald, strikeout, double. Unreal. So he did the walk of shame to the dugout.

➤ Mark Leiter came in and gave up a single and a sac fly that made it 10-8 before settling down and getting the last out in the sixth and all three in the seventh. Devin Williams was great in a 10-pitch 1-2-3 eighth, but normally reliable David Bednar gave up a solo homer to Trevor Larnach in the ninth before finally ending the game. What should have been a laugher became a nail biter, so I ask again, how is this team going to win in the postseason with this bullpen?

➤ Before all that unnecessary drama, the Yankees’ offense erupted for 10 runs in the first four innings and there was only one home run, a two-run shot by Grisham. They pounded out 16 hits, went 7-for-16 with runners in scoring position, and every starter had at least one hit.

➤ Anthony Volpe made his first start in nearly a week and he delivered two hits, scored twice and drove in one, and that was the same line that Austin Wells put up. Ben Rice had three hits, Stanton had two hits and also had two RBI, and Chisholm and Grisham had two hits each. Just a lot of good at bats against a bunch of Triple-A level Minnesota pitchers including starter Zebby Matthews who gave up nine runs on 11 hits and two walks.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Schlittler: “Let up the home run and then tried to get too picky when you’re up (seven) runs. It’s embarrassing, but you got to get in the zone, especially with that lead. That’s obviously the goal (to pitch in the playoffs) and you’re not going to get those opportunities when you walk five against a team that’s not even in the race. Just got to be better with that and keep working over these next few starts.”

• Volpe on returning to the lineup: “It felt great. It was tough watching, but it was a big win. All these games are big. It felt good to get out there.”

Sept. 17: Yankees 10, Twins 5

➤ For the second night in a row, 10 runs from the offense, a laugher was developing, and then the starting pitcher went in the tank in the fifth inning and turned it into a tighter game than it needed to be. But these are the Twins, they stink, and the Yankees were able to get the win and take the series.

➤ Luis Gil, coming off six no-hit innings in his last outing at Boston, was lousy, plain and simple. Just like Schlittler on Tuesday he couldn’t get through five innings and he taxed the bullpen, though this time, the relievers actually delivered a collectively excellent night with 4.1 scoreless innings. Gil was handed a 7-2 lead thanks to a five-run fourth inning, but he gave up nine hits and two walks and he committed an error on a pickoff throw so only four of his five runs allowed were earned. Six of the hits came after he’d gotten two strikes on the batter as he couldn’t put anyone away.

➤ After 16 hits Tuesday, the Yankees had 11 more in this one and Grisham was the big man with two homers and four RBI. His solo shot in the third tied the score at 2-2 and then in the fourth, his three-run bomb made it 6-2. The fourth had begun with back-to-back doubles by Paul Goldschmidt and Dominguez, two players who have mostly been out of the starting lineup recently. After the homer, the Yankees kept going as Rice doubled, Judge singled, and Rice came home on a balk.

➤ After Gil gave up three runs in the fifth and the Twins crept within 7-5, Cruz got the last out of the fifth and this time Boone stuck with him and he got all three in the sixth. Williams was once again great as he struck out three in the seventh, then Weaver put his awful Monday behind him with a scoreless eighth before Doval closed it with a 1-2-3 ninth. Bednar wasn’t needed because Bellinger’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth enabled Boone to rest him.

➤ The Yankees, back to their high mark of 18 games over .500, have now gone 23-11 since Aug. 11, yet while they picked up a game on the Blue Jays, they’re still trailing by four (actually five because of the tiebreaker) so their chances of winning the division are microscopic at this point. Now it’s all about securing the top wildcard spot and homefield advantage for that first series.

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

• Grisham on winning the last two games: “I think what happened speaks to the guys we have in the clubhouse, the guys we have in that lineup. Just a resilient group. They fight a lot. Up and down the lineup, it’s just tough AB after tough AB. … It’s just who we are.”

• Boone on the struggles of Gil and Schlittler and their chances of making the postseason rotation: “Performance matters. They’re each going to have a few more here, so hopefully they kind of put us in a tough situation based on them performing well.”

The Yankees now host Baltimore for four games and for everyone who thought the end of the season schedule would be a huge advantage for the Yankees, think again. The Orioles have the best record (72-80) of the six last-place teams and in September they’ve won 11 of 15 games after completing a sweep of the dreadful White Sox Wednesday.

Seven of the last 10 games are against the Orioles with the last three of the year at Camden Yards. If the Yankees are going to hold on to the top wildcard spot, the Orioles - who are 3-3 against New York this year - are going to have a big say in that.

Here are some of the top Orioles to watch:

➤ 2B Jackson Holliday: He hasn’t been the instant superstar everyone thought he’d be as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 draft, but he has a .324 on-base and a team-high 17 homers.

➤ SS Gunnar Henderson: Without question he has had a disappointing season with just 16 homers, 64 RBI and a .788 OPS.

➤ 3B Jordan Westburg: Another top prospect who has scuffled most of the year though he does have a decent .795 OPS.

➤ LF Colton Cowser: Runner-up to Luis Gil in the 2024 rookie of the year vote, injuries have derailed him this year as he’s hitting .199 but he has 15 homers in 83 games.

➤ RP Keegan Akin: With star closer Felix Bautista out for the season, he has moved into that role and has six saves and a 3.20 ERA.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Thursday, 7:15, FOX: Max Fried (3.03 ERA) vs. Cade Povich (5.05) who gave up three runs in 4.2 innings to the Yankees on April 30 and now has a bad 1.446 WHIP.

• Friday, 7:05, YES: Will Warren (4.44) vs. Trevor Rogers (1.43) who missed the first two months but since returning has been one of the best pitchers in the AL with an awesome 0.894 WHIP

• Saturday, 7:05, YES: Carlos Rodon (3.11) vs. Tomoyuki Sugano (4.39), the 35-year Japanese rookie who threw five scoreless innings against the Yankees on April 28 but got lit up on June 20.

• Sunday, 1:35, YES: Cam Schlittler (3.41) vs. Kyle Bradish (2.45) who missed the first five months of the season but in his four starts has been excellent with a 1.091 WHIP.