Yankees are non-competitive in a 6-1 loss to the Twins

Absolutely ineffective on the mound, defensively, and offensively, the Yankees lost 6-1 to the Twins, their ninth loss in ten games. They have an awful 3-12 record since peaking at 46-28 on June 19th. The team they’ve dominated for the better part of this century also won its first series at Yankee Stadium since 2014, when the Yankees’ lineup featured the likes of Yangervis Solarte, Kelly Johnson, and Zoilo Almonte. It’s bad.

Addressing how this result came to pass, there is more to speed as a threat than the number of bases a team steals, and the Twins showcased that in how they approached this matchup against Ryan Weathers. Whether their consistent willingness to try to take an extra bag rattled Weathers in any way or not, it was involved in the two times Minnesota scored a run off the Yankee starter.

The first two hitters of the game reached safely on a double and an infield single, as Weathers couldn’t cleanly field a squibbler from Byron Buxton, who was eventually thrown out at second trying to secure an early steal. Last night’s star, Josh Bell, made sure the Twins got something out of that inning, getting on the board early by knocking an RBI single into right field.

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Specifically on Buxton’s stolen base attempt, Austin Wells catching him red-handed was significant given he hadn’t been caught stealing since 2024, 31-for-31 in stolen base attempts since the start of last season. Unfortunately for the Twins, Buxton felt something relating to a previous hip injury and had to leave the game early, replaced by Kyler Fedko.

A few innings later, Royce Lewis opened the fourth with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and looked intent on stealing third to set up a sacrifice fly, enough so that he generated two early pickoff throws from Weathers at second. Perhaps too much attention to the basepaths led Weathers to not elevate a fastball enough and see Brooks Lee dump it into left for an RBI single, doubling the Twins’ lead.

Even though the signs were there on a cloudy “Weathers” forecast, the Yankees tried to extend him one more inning in the fifth, a decision they’d later regret. Opening the frame with a hit-by-pitch and walk, Weathers was removed in favor of Paul Blackburn, who very nearly got out of this mess but became yet another victim of Royce Lewis, who hit a two-run bases-loaded single to make it 4-0 Twins. Responsible for scoring or driving in three of the Twins’ first four runs, Lewis is in the middle of his best run of form this season, having reached safely in 15 out of his last 16 games.

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While Blackburn was adequate in a tough situation, the Yankees bullpen didn’t provide much of a boost after a poor Weathers performance, justifying why the Yankees pushed their starter by allowing the Twins to further increase their lead. Camilo Doval opened the sixth, running into all sorts of trouble through his fault and also the defense’s, not to mention bad luck. A Volpe error and a lucky pop-up bunt hit that fell in no man’s land loaded the bases, allowing Minnesota to put two more across, scoring half a dozen. The story is just more of the same with Doval, who even with the miscues behind him has just been dreadful over and over again.

As if there weren’t enough disappointments in this loss, the Yankees, much like the Twins, also saw an important player leave the game early. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was replaced in the middle innings by Amed Rosario.