MINNEAPOLIS — The Yankees met the hottest team in baseball Tuesday and handled it with a fiery left-hander and some red-hot bats.
Every member of the starting lineup had a hit by the fifth inning and Carlos Rodon delivered another quality outing as the Yankees tamed the Twins with a 5-1 win at Target Field.
The Twins (24-17) came into the night having won 17 of their last 20 games, but at least in the first game of the series, they were no match for the Yankees (28-15), who won for the eighth time in their last 10 games.
Led by multi-hit efforts from Anthony Volpe, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres and Oswaldo Cabrera, the Yankees pounded out 13 hits to pick up where they left off from Sunday’s 10-run outburst against the Rays.
Rodon had an inauspicious start to the game, giving up a home run on his second pitch of the night, but that turned out to be the only damage he allowed across six innings.
Three of the six hits he allowed came in the first inning, including Ryan Jeffers’ leadoff home run.
But he did well to settle in, retiring 11 straight before allowing a single to lead off the seventh inning.
For the third straight start, Rodon did not walk a batter, this time striking out six — two each on his fastball, changeup and slider — while lowering his ERA to 3.31 through nine starts.
He had his worst start of the season on May 2 against the Orioles (seven runs across four innings), but has rebounded with two quality outings since.
“He’s done everything he’s needed to do to set himself up to give him the best chance to be successful,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “Then his talent now takes over from there. He’s paid the price. He’s worked. He’s worked in the winter, between his starts, he’s done everything he’s needed to do physically, in the weight room, in the training room, on the mound.
“He’s just laid a really nice foundation for himself and it’s showed up so far.”
The Yankees quickly answered for Rodon’s only blemish of the night, taking the lead for good in the top of the second inning against Twins right-hander Chris Paddack.
Anthony Rizzo, Torres and Austin Wells strung together consecutive singles to lead off the frame before Oswaldo Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Volpe came up next and lofted an RBI single to left for the 2-1 lead.
After the station-to-station work in the second inning, Stanton got the job done quicker in the third.
He crushed his ninth home run of the year, a 427-foot solo shot lined into the bullpens in left-center field to make it a 3-1 game.
The Yankees continued to add on in the fourth, getting the rally started by a Juan Soto walk and an infield single from Aaron Judge.
Alex Verdugo then sliced a double to the gap in left-center field, with Judge getting on his horse to score all the way from first for the 5-1 lead.
Ian Hamilton relieved Rodon in the seventh inning and was sharp across two scoreless innings before Clay Holmes closed it out in the ninth.