MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 As the Yankees prepared for their game Tuesday, the visiting clubhouse at Target Field still smelled of stale champagne, the rug still wet from the morning cleaning it underwent hours after being drenched in a playoff-clinching celebration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Otherwise, there were no signs of a hangover for the Yankees, who got back to work in what their manager called an \u201cuphill battle\u201d to overtake the Rays for the division title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cody Bellinger and Spencer Jones went deep while Max Fried turned in his best start since coming off the injured list again, the combination allowing the Yankees to cruise past the Twins 8-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only real headache for the Yankees (88-63) was that the Rays kept winning, courtesy of another walk-off home run from Junior Caminero. That meant the Yankees remained 3 1\/2 games back for first place in the AL East with 11 games to play, with their chances of catching up to the Rays for the division getting slimmer by the day, even with a four-game set against them awaiting next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to show up and win,\u201d said Bellinger, who went 3-for-4 with a walk. \u201cWe expect to win every day and we got to keep on rolling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spencer Jones belts a three-run homer in the sixth inning of the Yankees\u2019 8-1 blowout win over the Twins on Sept. 15, 2026 in Minnesota. ruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
For now, the Yankees controlled the only thing they could by beating up on their longtime punching bag, the Twins (70-81), while moving six games clear of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They gave Fried a 2-0 lead before he even took the mound, courtesy of Bellinger\u2019s two-run home run in the top of the first, and then the left-hander ran with it. Fried completed seven innings for the first time since April 22 and recorded his first win since April 27 (this was his 12th start since), as he scattered one run and six hits while walking none and striking out six across 88 pitches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice are all smiles after Bellinger\u2019s two-run homer in the first inning. Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely was nice to be able to put what felt like a full start together,\u201d said Fried, who was still working on a pitch count in his fourth start back from a second IL stint for a left elbow bone bruise. \u201cIt\u2019s a mix of feeling good with where we\u2019re at but also knowing we still have stuff to work on. I want to make sure I\u2019m a little bit sharper coming down to the end. We got a big series coming up against Tampa for my next one, so just want to make sure I\u2019m ready for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Yankees gave Fried plenty of support as they racked up 14 hits against right-hander Bailey Ober and the Twins bullpen. Every member of the starting lineup had at least one hit, with Heliot Ramos, George Lombard Jr. and Anthony Volpe each reaching three times.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jones delivered the crushing blow to break the Twins\u2019 back in the sixth inning, clobbering a three-run shot off lefty Taylor Rogers to put the Yankees ahead 7-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Before Jones swatted his sweeper 423 feet, Rogers had not allowed a home run to a left-handed hitter all season (in 133 plate appearances). Jones, meanwhile, went deep against a lefty for the third time (of his 10 big league home runs) \u2014 improving to batting .435 with a 1.251 OPS in 46 at-bats against lefties and continuing to show he is worthy of starts against them with plenty of Red Sox southpaws looming in a likely AL wild-card series.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been awesome,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cI know the numbers are great \u2026 but I was even talking to Brad in the dugout, it\u2019s like, he\u2019s done it a lot off of some really good lefties. Sometimes you can stumble into some numbers, especially when it\u2019s smaller sample. I feel like he\u2019s having great at-bats against them and controlling at-bats against them. That\u2019s a bomb off a guy that\u2019s really tough left-on-left.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Max Fried allowed just one run over seven innings in the Yankees\u2019 win over the Twins. Getty Images<\/p>\n
New York Yankees\u2019 Heliot Ramos celebrates after hitting a single during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. AP Photo\/Abbie Parr<\/p>\n
Earlier in the inning, Ramos had reached base for the third time by drilling an RBI double to the left field corner for the 4-1 lead. <\/p>\n
The right fielder, wearing No. 21 for the night to honor his fellow Puerto Rican and \u201cinspiration\u201d on Roberto Clemente Day, went 2-for-4 with a walk while starting for Aaron Judge, who got the day off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ramos, who is vying with Jones to start in the outfield against lefties in the postseason, acknowledged that it has been an adjustment not playing every day after being acquired at the trade deadline. <\/p>\n
But he has been much better of late, batting .275 with a .896 OPS over his last 16 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI work hard every day for whatever is happening right now,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cHonestly, I stay positive just cheering the boys. I love winning, I love being here, and that\u2019s the main thing I\u2019m worried about right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 As the Yankees prepared for their game Tuesday, the visiting clubhouse at Target Field still smelled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,1365,108,822,60,3190,4,62,5055,185,148],"class_list":["post-806278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-baseball","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-max-fried","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-spencer-jones","tag-sports","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117279444426270570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}