Twins nearly claw all the way back but fall to Yankees

For the first half of Tuesday night s meeting it looked destined to be a blowout an uncompetitive ballgame between two teams that have historically played multiple of those The New York Yankees had chased Twins starting pitcher Zebby Matthews early and built up a nine-run lead by the time the fifth inning came around But the Twins wouldn t roll over Though their comeback attempt fell just short the Twins managed to make a contest out of it before falling - to the Yankees in the second battle of the series at Target Field We ve got particular guys that just they refused to stop playing hard and want to win at all costs manager Rocco Baldelli mentioned You want the win at the back end of this for sure But I fully enjoyed watching our guys compete out there and do what they did That was fantastic The Twins - who scored a run in the first inning added three more in the fifth two of which came from James Outman s fifth home run of the season Right after that Byron Buxton went to work with his legs stealing second base after taking a walk Buxton who is attempting to become the first Twin with home runs and stolen bases took off for third during Austin Martin s at-bat He would have had it stolen too if not for Martin getting a piece of the ball fouling it off He then tried again later in the inning stealing third base successfully for the second time in his career Prior to this season Buxton had only attempted to swipe third one time in his career in That brought Buxton who already has accomplished the home run piece of the feat up to stolen bases Try something different Buxton explained A little more stuff on the line Just trying to go for it a little bit From there he scored the unit s third run of the inning on a wild pitch In the sixth the Twins added another four runs using five hits to do so including a Ryan Fitzgerald two-run home run Trevor Larnach s long fly ball to right later in the inning traveled feet and excited the crowd before dying on the warning track just a sparse feet short of tying the contest Buxton scored on the sacrifice fly Larnach would get his home run after all but it was a solo shot in the ninth inning and the Twins fell by one run to the Yankees - Matthews allowed singles to the first two batters of the tournament both of whom scored In one of his shortest starts of the season Matthews lasted just three innings giving up a season-high nine runs on hits Hats off to the offense and the bullpen They really picked up the company and me especially with the rough start Matthews stated They kept fighting and kept swinging You love to see that out of them MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA - SEPTEMBER Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees hits a single against the Minnesota Twins in the first inning at Target Field on September in Minneapolis Minnesota Photo by Stephen Maturen Getty Images New York Yankees' Cody Bellinger steals second base against Minnesota Twins third baseman Ryan Fitzgerald in the first inning of a baseball event Tuesday Sept in Minneapolis AP Photo Mike Stewart