Simeon Woods Richardson, Austin Martin shine as Twins beat Yankees

The Twins won t be going to the postseason this season but over the next week and a half they could have a big say in who does The Twins kicked off a series with the New York Yankees on Monday night at Target Field They ll follow that up with a four-game set against the Cleveland Guardians before heading to Texas to play the Rangers for three All three teams are fighting for a wild card berth And on Monday in their first chance to play spoiler the Twins beat the Yankees - behind one of the best starts of Simeon Woods Richardson s career In his six shutout innings Woods Richardson recorded a career-high strikeouts including five straight from the third inning to fifth The starter relied heavily on his splitter getting eight of his swing and misses on the pitch Woods Richardson walked Aaron Judge in the sixth inning and the Yankees star advanced to second on a wild pitch But the pitcher finished off his outing by getting a pair of batters to strike out It was just the second time this season he had completed six innings Woods Richardson who allowed just two hits outdueled Yankees starter Carlos Rod n who altogether stifled the Twins the last time the two teams played The Twins scored their first run in the third inning when the Yankees were unable to turn a double play on an Austin Martin groundball Brooks Lee s th home run of the season was the only other run the Twins would get off Rod n in his six innings But after his departure they broke through After Lee drove in his second run with a double to right Martin had the big hit of the challenge sending his own double out to left to clear the bases Three runs scored on the play and a fifth in the inning came home on Luke Keaschall s single which ricocheted off of reliever Camilo Doval s glove and into the outfield Though the contest was well in hand at that point Martin had one more highlight for good measure With a pair of runners on and two outs in the eighth inning Cody Bellinger hit a fly ball to left which Martin tracked down snagging the ball just before the upper half of his body fell over the low side wall He got up and walked a insufficient efforts before holding up his red and black glove ball in the middle of the pocket for third base umpire D J Reyburn to inspect setting off a roar in the crowd