Aaron Boone weighed his options.

Rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler had given the Yankees five solid innings on Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins, using 86 pitches to do so.

But Schlittler needed 52 pitches to get through his final two frames, and the heart of the Twins order was due up for the third time.

So Boone turned to reliever Yerry De los Santos, and the Twins tagged the right-hander for three runs in the Yankees’ eventual 4-1 loss.

“I felt like [Schlittler] really had to grind in the fourth and the fifth there,” Boone said. “He set us up, especially going into an off day and a rested-up pen. I felt like we could get there.”

After rain delayed the start of the game by an hour and 52 minutes, the score was tied, 1-1, when De los Santos entered to begin the sixth.

Byron Buxton greeted him with a hard-hit infield single, and Luke Keaschall followed with a slow-rolling infield hit. Both baserunners scored when Kody Clemens — son of Roger Clemens — lined a clean double into the right-center gap.

Two batters later, Royce Lewis added a bloop RBI double against Mark Leiter Jr., giving the Twins a 4-1 lead.

Boone said he considered sticking with Schlittler to start the sixth, but he pointed to the fourth inning, when Buxton won a 10-pitch battle against the right-hander to set up the Twins’ first run.

“It was a conversation,” Boone said. “He had thrown 52 [pitches] over the fourth and fifth innings, though, and [was] just coming through a tough part of the lineup. Buxton, the time prior, had seen a ton of pitches before hitting the double against him.”

Leaning primarily on a fastball he dialed up to 100 mph, Schlittler retired the Twins’ first nine batters and needed only 34 pitches to do so.

But he gave up two hits and two walks over his final two innings.

“I felt good,” Schlittler said of how he felt after the fifth. “I’m a rookie, so you’ve got to earn that. It’s gonna take time and consistency, so no issues with that decision, and I trust the bullpen.”

It was the first time in six career starts that Schlittler, 24, gave up fewer than two runs. He lowered his ERA to 3.94.

De los Santos, meanwhile, surrendered three runs without recording an out, and his ERA ballooned from 1.57 to 2.51.

The Yankees’ offense couldn’t overcome the Twins’ sixth-inning rally.

Minnesota ace Joe Ryan held the Yankees to one run — a third-inning solo homer by Cody Bellinger — over 6.2 innings and struck out seven.

The right-handed Ryan, who improved to 12-5 with a 2.72 ERA, was one of the few marquee players the Twins kept after trading away 10 major leaguers during last month’s fire sale.

“He definitely settled in,” Bellinger said. “He was locating really well today. It’s such a unique arm, and on top of that, I think he mixed really well.”

The loss snapped the Yankees’ nine-game winning streak over the Twins, against whom they are now 125-45 since 2002, including the playoffs. The Yankees (64-57) won the series with decisive victories on Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday’s loss denied them a sweep of their longtime punching bag.

Despite the loss, the Yankees maintained their one-game lead for the third and final American League wild card spot.

But they failed to gain ground on the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox or Seattle Mariners or create more distance over the Cleveland Guardians or Texas Rangers, all of whom also lost Wednesday.

“When you lose, it sucks,” Boone said. “It’s on us right now. We’ve got to go play well. There’s nothing you can do about all that. We see it all, but if we want to catch those teams, in theory, or we get where we want to go, we’ve got to play well over an extended period.”

Originally Published: August 13, 2025 at 11:38 PM EDT