MINNEAPOLIS — A day after one of the Yankees’ ugliest losses of the season — to a Twins franchise that has provided little resistance to them the last 23 years — the Yankees narrowly avoided a defeat that would have been nothing less than a debacle.
After building a nine-run lead through four innings Tuesday night, the Yankees watched the Twins crawl within two runs, and miss a game-tying homer by mere feet in the sixth inning, and then within one run when David Bednar allowed a solo homer in the ninth.
But the closer retired two straight and the Yankees escaped with a 10-9 victory in front of 25,500 at Target Field that in some ways felt more like a loss than a win.
But, nonetheless, it was a win.
“Definitely made it dicey there,” said Aaron Boone, whose team led 10-1 after four innings. “A little exhale after that one.”
The Yankees (84-67) stayed five games behind the Blue Jays, who beat the Rays, in the AL East. They’re now 1½ games ahead of the fading Astros, no longer in first in the AL West, for the league’s top wild-card spot (the Red Sox, who lost at home to the Athletics, are in the third slot, another half game behind Houston but 2 1/2 games clear of Cleveland).
Mark Leiter Jr. took over for an ineffective Ryan Yarbrough (four runs in one-third of an inning) in the sixth and got out of that inning after allowing Trevor Larnach’s long sacrifice fly to the base of the wall in right that just missed tying it 10-10 and instead made it 10-8. Leiter (6-7) then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh.
“That’s one of the stories of the game for me,” Boone said of Leiter. “A huge [five] outs from Mark there to settle things.”
After Aaron Judge ran the Yankees out of the top of the eighth with the debatable decision to try stealing third for the second out of the inning, Devin Williams struck out two in a dominant 1-2-3 bottom half.
Bednar allowed the one-out homer to Larnach in the ninth before getting Kody Clemens to ground sharply to first and striking out Royce Lewis to earn his 25th save (eighth with the Yankees).
The Yankees, who outhit the Twins 16-9, took a 10-1 lead into the fifth, but starter Cam Schlittler, who since being called up in early July had displayed strong command overall, didn’t make it out of the inning, in large part because of his nightlong struggle finding the strike zone.
The rookie allowed a Ryan Fitzgerald single and two-run homer to James Outman before walking two batters later in the inning and throwing a wild pitch that scored another run to make it 10-4. Fernando Cruz recorded the third out of the inning.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Schlittler, who allowed four runs, three hits and a season-high five walks in 4 2/3 innings in which he threw 89 pitches, just 49 of those strikes. “You gotta get in the zone, especially with that lead.”
Yarbrough, a lefthander, came on for the sixth and it got interesting quickly. Matt Wallner doubled and Mickey Gasper brought him in with a single.
Fitzgerald’s two-run homer suddenly made it 10-7. After striking out Outman, Yarbrough allowed a double to Byron Buxton and that was enough for Boone, who called for Leiter.
Austin Martin laid down a bunt single and Larnach’s heart-in-throat sacrifice fly to right followed to make it 10-8.
“It’s fun to pitch in those moments,” Leiter said.
Of Larnach’s ball, Leiter smiled and said, “No, I didn’t” think it would carry as far as it did.
“I knew he hit it on the barrel, but I thought I got him out in front a little bit, underneath it,” Leiter said. “I felt pretty comfortable off the bat that was an out.”
The early going did not portend late drama of any kind.
Two batters into the game the Yankees had matched their hit total from Monday night’s 7-0 loss as Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge led off against overmatched righthander Zebby Matthews with singles. Cody Bellinger’s one-out RBI single made it 1-0 and Giancarlo Stanton’s long sacrifice fly to center made it 2-1.
After Schlittler allowed one in the bottom half, Anthony Volpe (two hits), on the bench the previous six games after receiving a cortisone shot in his ailing left shoulder, doubled with one out and came in on Austin Wells’ double.
Grisham’s 31st homer made it 5-1 and Stanton’s RBI single made it 6-1.
The Yankees sent nine batters to the plate in that second inning.
Grisham (sacrifice fly), Judge (sac fly) and Ben Rice (double) drove in runs in the third and Volpe’s RBI single in the fourth made it 10-1.
“At times it was stressful,” Volpe said of how the game went from there. “They fought but we did what we had to do.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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