Minneapolis – The Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees have had one of the most lopsided tales in baseball since 2002. The Yankees have won 125 games, and the Twins only 45, over the last 23 years in their regular and postseason matchups.

Minnesota has only one season with a winning record against the Yankees in that time, when they went 4-3 against them in 2023. They managed to steal a game against them at Yankee Stadium this year, but the Twins need to take two of three against them at home to make it the second time in three years they don’t own a losing record against them.

The Yankees held a one-game lead over the Boston Red Sox for the first A.L. Wild Card spot and sat four games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the A.L. East entering Monday. The Twins are officially eliminated from contention, but they have ample opportunity to play spoiler the rest of the way.

Fortunately for the Twins, they’d have a couple of former A.L. East farmhands, Simeon Woods Richardson and Austin Martin, acting as double agents to spoil the Yankees from adding another win to their record.

“I think it makes a statement in our clubhouse,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “You see Sim go out there today and pitch the way he did and punch out 11 guys, and attack really well. He had a real good split going today, threw some really good sliders, had good life, and some adrenaline going as the game went on.”

Woods Richardson had arguably the best start of his career against a team the Twins seemingly haven’t been able to beat in the past 24 years. He’d provide his teammates with six innings of scoreless baseball and set a new career high for strikeouts in a game with 11, with 15 swings and misses to complement them.

Kody Funderburk, Travis Adams, and Pierson Ohl each threw a scoreless inning to provide the franchise’s first shutout of the Evil Empire at Target Field. The Twins last shut out the Yankees at the Metrodome on August 11, 2008.

“It’s one of them,” Woods Richardson said regarding whether it was his best start ever. “But I’m happy that our bullpen came in and shut the door because throwing a shutout in the big leagues is not easy.

“So yeah, it’s a huge team win on that part for the pitching staff. And then our offense came together and just did the runs we needed. Yeah, it was a little extra. Just seeing all the Yankee jerseys in the crowd, I kind of took it personal.”

It marked his fifth start of the year, throwing at least five innings, walking three or fewer batters, and allowing no more than one earned run against a postseason contender. His previous starts came against the Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, and Chicago Cubs.

“I’ve always been a competitor,” said Woods Richardson. “I’ve always been one of those guys who wants to face the best, compete against the best. In the big leagues, everybody is the best. But there’s also powerhouses in this league. If I can knock down the powerhouses, it’s like a miniature game that you play with yourself.”

Martin led the way for the Twins on the offensive side to make it their first lopsided victory over the Bronx Bombers since April 13, 2023, when they outslugged the Yankees 11-2 at Yankee Stadium. Martin was 1-for-4, with a bases-clearing RBI double in the 7th off Luke Weaver that made it a 6-0 game, and had a couple of extra stolen bases on top of it.

Bases cleared. Lead doubled.

Austin Martin delivers for the @Twins! pic.twitter.com/eQQoVWP9C4

— MLB (@MLB) September 16, 2025

Martin only had two RBI going into Monday’s game through 134 plate appearances, so for him to get the big hit that blew the game open was extra special.

“I fell behind early, and the only thing I was trying to do was just put the ball in play,” said Martin. “That was literally all I was focused on. I remember facing him in New York. He’s got really good stuff. Elite stuff. I was just focused on pitch by pitch, just trying to put the ball in play as best as I can.”

Still, the game had some late-inning drama. Adams found himself in a late-inning jam, walking two batters with two outs and Cody Bellinger at the plate. Bellinger battled Adams in a 10-pitch at-bat, and he sent the last one flying into the seats just beyond the left field foul line.

Martin hustled and made a game-saving catch into the stands that went under review by the Yankees, who thought he’d dropped it when he fell over the railing. But before Martin caught the ball, a Yankee fan in the seats had just barely made contact with the ball in play. It was fan interference, and Martin’s nonchalant lift of his glove to show the umpire the ball made for some well-earned entertainment for the 22,000 fans in attendance.

Austin Martin goes halfway into the stands to make the catch! pic.twitter.com/lKV3iR97k6

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 16, 2025

“That wall is concrete, so I just needed to catch my breath a little bit,” Martin said. “I got up, and I looked around, and nobody was moving. I just assumed everybody saw me catch the ball. I wasn’t trying to deke anybody or anything like that. I just looked up and nobody was doing anything, so I just showed the ball and then everybody reacted.”

The Twins won’t make the postseason this year, but they will still have a chance to put together good wins against four teams still fighting for postseason contention in their final 12 games. Each win they walk away with in the last two weeks adds more confidence in what they can do on the field and carry it into next season.

“I feel like these last few weeks, we’ve shown that we can play with the best of them,” said Martin. “Sometimes we fall short, and that’s just baseball. A lot of things aren’t going to go your way, but I feel like — at least how I feel personally is that we’ve proven that we have a lot of talent in this clubhouse and we can compete with the best.”

“You’re the roadblock,” Woods Richardson said. “That’s also something you’ve got to take personal, too, because they’re in playoff contention like everybody knows. We’re the roadblock. You’ve still got to go through us.”