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Yankees 10, Twins 9: A laugher turns into a nailbiter

Call it the Game Nobody Wanted to Win.

The Yankees roared ahead to a 10-1 lead before letting it very nearly slip away. They scored in each of the first four innings, before not plating a run the rest of the game. Cam Schlittler looked great until he didn’t, and while the Yankees walked away with a victory, everything tonight ended much too close for comfort. Still, a win is a win, and the Yankees finally ended up taking this one, 10-9.

I think Minnesota wanted Zebby Matthews to wear it a little longer than he did, but the rookie righty was just smacked around too much. The Yankees got a pair of runs before Cam Schlittler even stepped on the field, with Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton both driving in men on base. We were off and running … for the moment.

In the second, Austin Wells followed Anthony Volpe’s double with one of his own, before Trent Grisham put a stamp on a dark, dark start for young Master Matthews:

This was the point where I think the Twins decided to let him wear one, but the Yankees didn’t relent. Matthews would be charged with four more runs while managing to complete three innings. Stanton added another RBI in the frame with a real well-placed RBI single:

Grisham and Aaron Judge had sac flies in stereo in the third to put up another crooked number, and then Big Bad Ben Rice made it somewhat of a laugher — at least for the moment:

Now, Schlittler had a fine second, third and fourth innings. He retired a dozen Twins in a row at one point. He did not finish the fifth inning, despite entering it up nine runs.

The first inning was taxing, with Schlittler walking a pair of batters with two out before Royce Lewis stung him for an RBI single. It was a fine thing the Yankees responded the way that they did, but after the Purging of the Dozen, Cam ran into major trouble in the fifth.

Up nine runs, Schlittler grooved a ball over the plate that James Outman obliterated, making the deficit seven runs. Then the walks came, a pair sandwiched around an Austin Martin strikeout. Walking Byron Buxton led to a pair of steals, with the Twins’ franchise player suddenly at third, then coming home easily on a wild pitch. One final free pass for Kody Clemens meant Cam’s day was over. He would not qualify for a win in a game where his team scored in double digits — a tough look.

Fernando Cruz was able to close out the fifth, but Ryan Yarbrough wasn’t much better than Schlittler. The lefty, ostensibly a longman, recorded just one out himself, against four earned runs. The big hit was a three-run shot from Ryan Fitzgerald:

Yarbrough would be charged with another run when Mark Leiter Jr. got a long, scary sacrifice fly for the second out of the inning. Other than that, Leiter was pretty impressive, getting five outs at a time the club felt like it was bleeding pretty severely.

Devin Williams, of all people, carried the torch after Mark, working a 1-2-3 eighth to hold the lead at two. David Bednar got Austin Martin to pop out on his first pitch in the ninth, but hung his third pitch and Trevor Larnach smashed a solo shot to make it a one-run game. The big hairy bear certainly made the game just as hairy, before finally fanning Royce Lewis to end it.

This should never have been so close, and really underscores how much of a concern the Yankee bullpen is going into a postseason run. Not like the bullpen means much in the playoffs, right? The Red Sox at least got toppled by the scrappy A’s at Fenway, so the Yanks added a full two games of separation between them in their bid to secure the top Wild Card.

New York can get a series win over a team they really should take it from tomorrow, with the finale coming at 7:40pm ET once again. This one will be on Amazon Prime, and Luis Gil will get the ball against former division rival Taj Bradley.