Yankees come back from five down for badly needed walk-off win over Twins
Aaron Judge is just going to enjoy the ride. The Yankees’ season has been full of ups and downs. After a devastating loss late Sunday night, they rallied on Monday. Gary Sanchez slapped a single into right field, scoring the ghost runner, as the Yankees rallied from five runs down for the first time this season and beat the Twins 6-5 in 10 innings at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s a roller coaster, but you gotta enjoy the ride,” Judge said after hitting the game-tying, three-run homer in the eighth inning. “When you’re on a roller coaster, you got to enjoy it, and it’s not over yet. So I’m excited. You know, down in the stretch, this is a fun part of the year. ... We’ll just keep riding it and ride it through the playoffs.”
With 18 games remaining, the Yankees (79-64) went into Monday’s make-up game one game behind the Red Sox and Blue Jays, who are tied for the two American League wild card spots. It was the 10th walk-off win of the season, the most since they had 15 in 2009. The five-run rally was their largest since they overcame the same deficit Aug. 30, 2020 against the Mets.
It was just their second win in the last 10 games, but Judge thinks it’s the type of win that can spur them on down the stretch.
“Especially after a win like this — coming from behind, down five runs — we can kind of build off that,” Judge said. “A great outing from our bullpen. (Luis) Gil settled in, a lot of great at-bats down there in a stretch in crunch time when we needed it. Let’s keep that rolling in Baltimore.”
Judge hammered his 33rd homer of the season into the right-field seats in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 5-5. The three-run shot was his third game-tying or go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later this season.
Joey Gallo broke up a no-hitter in the fifth with a beautifully executed drag bunt and homered in the seventh. It was his 33rd homer of the season, his eighth as a Yankee.
It was a rare game where the offense dug the pitching out of an early hole.
“I think it was really good to see the fight that we had today. We could have easily just let that game go ... but we kept grinding and kept coming,” Gallo said.
Gil, who had allowed three earned runs in the majors heading into Monday’s start, gave up five runs on seven hits in six innings of work on Monday. He walked one and struck out eight.
Gil gave up two two-run home runs in the first inning. Luis Arraez led off the game with a single and then Jorge Polanco homered for the Twins’ first two runs. Gil walked Josh Donaldson, struck out Max Kepler and then gave up another two-run bomb to Miguel Sano.
Gil sat down four straight before giving up a lead off homer to Byron Buxton in the third inning.
But he settled in and gave the Yankees much-needed innings.
“They throw a four-spot on us there in the first inning but credit to (Gil) ... to be able to go through six innings, not be fazed by it just continue to compete and allow us to do something special late,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Just a great job by him.”
Andrew Heaney, pitching in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, gave the Yankees 1.2 scoreless and Albert Abreu got an out. Aroldis Chapman worked around a two-out double and walk to pitch a scoreless ninth and Clay Holmes had a perfect 10th.
It was enough to give Boone some hope they might be turning the corner.
“I know what we’re capable of at our best. We’ve been a little bit of everything this year, so it’s gonna take our best, but if we do that, we’ve got a chance,” Boone said. “But nothing will surprise me that this group does.”
