The Yankees entered Monday's series opener against the Minnesota Twins in a bit of a tailspin and in danger of falling into a tie with the Cleveland Guardians for the final Wild Card spot with a loss.
So, having yet to win a series during the month of August with a 2-7 record over its last nine games, New York needed a spark in the worst way.
Answering the call, Cody Bellinger hit a solo homer in the first inning to get the Bronx Bombers out to an early lead. After that, starter Will Warren took things from there and delivered one of the best outings his manager has seen out of him during his young career.
"Big performance," Aaron Boone said about Warren. "That’s what it’s supposed to look like right there when you get deep into the game."
With the Yankees in need of length from their starters after relying so heavily on their bullpen recently, Warren pitched into the seventh inning for just the third time this season (and his career), finishing his night after 6.2 innings and allowing two earned runs (two solo shots) on three hits, no walks and seven strikeouts.
The 26-year-old only needed 85 pitches and notched his seventh win of the season, lowering his season ERA to 4.34. It was exactly what New York needed as the rookie continues to impress in his first full season while gaining more and more confidence along the way.
"It was a really complete game I thought. Starting with the starting pitcher," Boone said. "Just a really clean game all around."
But it wasn't just Warren who helped the Yankees win their first series opener since July 11 against the Chicago Cubs — exactly one month ago.
Along with Bellinger's long ball, Giancarlo Stanton, Ben Rice and Jazz Chisholm Jr. each hit solo shots of their own with Stanton and Rice going back-to-back in the third inning. Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge also had run-scoring hits as New York banged out six runs on 10 hits in a "good team win."
"I think we’ve been needing that spark," Warren said. "We’ve been playing flat I feel like and tonight we jumped out there with the Bellinger home run and then obviously we went back-to-back.
"I don’t know, we got a spark of energy and it was like ‘alright, this is how we’re supposed to play baseball’ like the past month hadn’t been like we’re supposed to play baseball. We’ve had a gut punch lately and it was nice to get out there and play baseball the way we’re supposed to."
With how poorly the Yankees were playing, hosting the Twins couldn't have come at a better time. Not only did Minnesota have a fire sale at the trade deadline and entered Monday's game with a 56-61 record, New York has completely dominated the franchise for more than 20 years.
Since 2002, the Yanks are 124-44 against the Twins. That's a .738 winning percentage.
Boone was asked if he can explain the sustained dominance over another team and the skipper didn't have an answer.
"Not really. We’re 1-0 against them this year," he said.
Whatever the reasoning, New York will certainly take it and hope it continues for the next two games and hopefully beyond that. After all, with the Boston Red Sox losing, the Yanks are only 1.5 GB of their division rivals for the second Wild Card spot and 6.0 GB of the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL East title.
With over 40 games remaining in the regular season, the Yankees still have plenty of time to make up the ground they've lost in the standings. But it'll take similar performances like the ones they got on Monday night to do it. Luckily for them, they're up for the challenge.
"Buncha guys were all putting in the work today and it’s always nice when the results show," Bellinger said.
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