Aaron Judge powers Yankees to 4-0 victory over Twins

Judge went 4 for 4 with a homer, three doubles and two RBIs.

May 15, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge (99) slides / Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

Aaron Judge needed one pitch to set the tone for the game. 

With two out in the first inning, Judge swung on the first pitch he saw from Twins starter Pablo Lopez and got every piece of it, crushing it 467 feet into the third deck in left field. His New York Yankees were off and running from there in a 4-0 victory over the Twins Wednesday night in front of an announced crowd of 22,235 at Target Field in downtown Minneapolis.

"Looked like a Home Run Derby homer to me," Lopez said of Judge's 467-foot blast.

The Yankees have now won the first two of the teams’ three-game series. 

Judge was dominant, going 4 for 4 with the homer, a trio of doubles, a walk and two RBIs.

"That's why he's one of the greatest players out there," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.

And after his homer, Judge’s Yankees (29-15) were able to plate a couple more runs off Lopez, who gave up three in all on 10 hits while fanning three across 6 1/3 innings.

While the Yankees were able to string hits together off Lopez, he was able to keep the damage relatively light and keep the Twins (24-18) within striking distance.

New York got another run off him in the second inning, when with one out, Gleyber Torres, Jose Trevino and Oswaldo Cabrera hit consecutive singles, and Anthony Volpe scored Torres with a sacrifice fly to center field on a play that Willi Castro lost track of the outs and was late making the throw to home plate. But Lopez got Juan Soto to fly out to end the inning with just the one run scored.

Castro, who caught that fly out as well, threw the ball into the stands out of frustration.

Willi Castro threw the ball out of the stadium after forgetting how many outs there were pic.twitter.com/iuTBUK8PLM

— Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1) May 16, 2024

Baldelli said he had a conversation with Castro about that situation after the game.

As far as limiting the damage, it was a similar story for Lopez in the third inning when Judge led off the frame with a double, Alex Verdugo followed up with a single and Giancarlo Stanton hit another single that scored Judge for a 3-0 Yankees lead. 

But Lopez got Anthony Rizzo to ground into a 4-6-3 double play, then got Torres to fly out to get out of the inning with just the one run scored despite the Yankees threatening more damage. 

"Today was a grind, that's probably one of the easiest ways to put it," Lopez said. "I had to deal with a lot of traffic. I looked up at the board and saw the amount of hits they had, so it was a lot of high-leverage pitches, stressful situations, where I’m happy I was able to navigate some of those and limit some damage that could of gotten out of hand very ugly."

While Lopez was able to keep the Twins’ deficit relatively manageable, the Minnesota offense was only able to string together two hits — an Edouard Julien double in the third inning and a Carlos Correa single in the fourth — off Yankees starter Marcus Stroman in his six innings. 

And the Twins really only threatened once in the second inning, when with one out, Correa reached on an error and Stroman walked Willi Castro. After Carlos Santana struck out, Stroman walked Alex Kirilloff, but Jose Miranda grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. 

Lopez came back out for the seventh inning and got Volpe to ground out to officially end his day, leaving the game with the Twins down 3-0. Kody Funderburk came on in relief but gave up back-to-back doubles to Soto and Judge. Judge’s double scored Soto as the Yankees took a 4-0 advantage. 

Funderburk rebounded by pitching a scoreless eighth inning.

Josh Staumont followed up by pitching a scoreless ninth inning.

But offensively, the Twins didn't fare any better against the Yankees bullpen than they did against Stroman. Luke Weaver pitched a pair of scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth innings, and Caleb Ferguson sent Castro, Santana and Manny Margot down in order in the ninth to close it out.

In all, the Twins registered just four hits Wednesday night.