Bombing in the Bronx: Yankees hand Twins their 14th postseason loss in a row in Game 1.
Yankees continue October dominance of Twins, hand them 14th playoff loss in a row in Game 1 of ALDS. NEW YORK 10 MINNESOTA 4
NEW YORK — New postseason, same story for the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins.
DJ LeMahieu homered and drove in four runs, Gleyber Torres broke a tie with a two-run double and the Yankees extended their October mastery of Minnesota with a 10-4 win Friday in the American League Division Series opener.
Aaron Judge made two diving catches in right field as the AL East champions handed Minnesota its major league-record 14th consecutive playoff defeat — 11 of them to the Yankees since 2004. The second grab thwarted a potential rally and left grateful reliever Zack Britton with both hands on his head to end the top of the seventh, when the Twins still were in the game.
“Huge,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Judge. “He’s so good out there.”
Brett Gardner also went deep for the Bronx Bombers in a playoff matchup between teams that finished with the most home runs in baseball history. Minnesota’s Bomba Squad socked 307, one more than New York as both clubs blew away the previous mark of 267 set by the Yankees last year.
But in the 14th postseason meeting of 100-win teams, it was more of the same Yankees dominance against the Twins — even though many of Minnesota’s players and coaches weren’t around for most of it.
Jorge Polanco, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano homered for Minnesota, the AL Central champion for the first time in nine years, but it was hurt by eight walks and hasn’t won a playoff game since Johan Santana beat Hall of Famer Mike Mussina 2-0 in the 2004 Division Series opener at Yankee Stadium.
“We had some good swings; we had our moments,” manager Rocco Baldelli said after his first playoff game as bench boss. “Just by chance, there was no one on base when we popped a few balls over the fence.”
Rookie reliever Zack Littell, a former Yankees farmhand who was traded to the Twins, took the loss after a brief and messy outing. With the score tied in the fifth, he walked Judge, threw a wild pitch and plunked Gardner.
Giancarlo Stanton drew the second of his three critical walks to load the bases, bringing up the 22year-old Torres. He fought back from 0-and-2 to a full count against Tyler Duffey and pulled a sharp one-hopper that deflected off the glove of a diving Sano behind third base, giving New York a 5-3 lead.