MINNEAPOLIS — Poised to score in the first inning and force the Twins to play catch up, the Yankees watched Edwin Encarnacion lumber toward first base after hitting a ball that screamed triple play.
“I tried but they got me,’’ said the heavy-legged Encarnacion whose ground ball to third baseman Luis Arraez with runners on first and second and no outs turned into a rally-killing triple play.
Arraez stepped on third, threw to second and Jonathan Schoop’s pivot toss to first completed the triple play and set the tone for an 8-6 Twins win that was witnessed by 34,627 Monday night at Target Field.
“That’s what a triple play looks like, and not necessarily with [just] Edwin running,’’ Aaron Boone said of the Yankees hitting into a triple play for the first time since Todd Frazier made three outs with one swing on July 25, 2017 against the Reds. “The double plays and triple play hurt us.’’
So, too, did the Twins hitting five homers, four off CC Sabathia, who gave up back-to-back one-out home runs to Jorge Polanco and Nelson Cruz in the home first. Sabathia also served up homers to Max Kepler and Mitch Garver in the fourth and then was lifted by Boone.
“It’s a tough lineup to face,’’ Sabathia said of the AL Central-leading Twins, who have hit a major league-high 187 homers and are on pace to shatter the all-time record of 267 which was set by last year’s Yankees team. “And I wasn’t.’’
The 64-35 Yankees’ second straight loss didn’t cost them ground in the AL East because the second-place Rays lost to the Red Sox and remained nine lengths back. The third-place Red Sox pulled to within 10 games of the first-place Yankees.Sabathia was also the victim of weak contact in the fourth when the Twins scored three runs (two earned) without hitting a home run.
Causing Sabathia (5-5) the most trouble was his cutter, a pitch that has been responsible for his second act after his velocity dropped.
“They have a good lineup and made adjustments and hit the cutter hard,’’ said Sabathia, whose four-inning outing was his shortest of the season and the four homers the most he has given up in 16 starts. “It just wasn’t sharp and they put good swings on it.’’
When Target Field opened almost a decade ago, Twins players griped about how hard it was to drive the ball out of the jewel of a ballpark. Monday night the ball refused to stay in play. The Yankees stayed close thanks to home runs by Gio Urshela, Luke Voit and DJ LeMahieu, who went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs.
Trailing, 7-3 after four the Yankees scored twice in the fifth when LeMahieu hit a two-run homer and once in the sixth on Mike Tauchman’s RBI single. Tauchman went 3-for-4 and scored twice.
“I wanted to keep it close enough to be within striking distance and it just didn’t happen,’’ Sabathia said.
After the home run spigot went dry following Garver’s second homer in the sixth off Luis Cessa the Yankees had a chance for a ninth-inning comeback.
Aaron Judge, who banged into a 6-4-3 double play with two runners on and one out in the sixth, singled with one out and scooted to third on Encarnacion’s shift-beating single through the right side of the infield. With runners at the corners Taylor Rogers struck out the frigid Gary Sanchez (10-for-80) and gloved Aaron Hicks’ comebacker to seal the win in a game the Yankees had a chance for an early lead and made three outs on one swing.