Aaron Judge drives in five in Yankees’ 9-5 win over Twins

Aaron Judge drove in five runs and Carlos Rodon pitched five perfect innings as the Yankees defeated the Twins, 9-5, on Wednesday night.

Here are the takeaways…

-Rodon was on it early, getting the Twins in order for the first five innings, striking out eight batters in the process. Alex Verdugo and Juan Soto also made tremendous plays in the outfield that had the Yankee Stadium crowd buzzing that they could be witnessing history.

However, after getting one out in the sixth, Carlos Santana drove a 97 mph fastball that was up and away into the right-field seats. Santana scorched the ball 368 feet, which would have been gone in 21 parks. With the perfect game and shutout gone, the Yankees left-hander had a hard time settling down, allowing back-to-back hits. A sac fly later, Rodon gutted his way through the sixth inning after throwing 30 pitches.

Rodon’s outstanding night was over after six innings (100 pitches/65 strikes) giving up two runs on three hits and striking out a season-high nine batters.

-The continued victimization of the Twins by the Yankees offense continued Wednesday in the first inning. New York scored four runs on five hits, punctuated by a Gleyber Torres two-run double. Judge drove in the first run on a groundout to score Anthony Volpe, and Giancarlo Stanton‘s RBI single to drive in Soto accounted for the four Yankees runs.

Judge would tack on with a bases-clearing triple in the fifth to put the Yankees up 7-0. Verdugo’s sac fly pushed across Judge for New York’s eighth run of the game. The Yankee Captain would drive in his fifth run of the game when he worked a bases-loaded walk in the sixth.

-With a seven-run lead, Aaron Boone brought in Dennis Santana as the first arm out of the bullpen. The right-hander was not effective giving up three runs on three hits in his two innings of work.

It’s the second consecutive outing Santana has allowed two or more runs, the last being on June 2 against the Giants.

Michael Tonkin did pitch a perfect ninth, including two strikeouts, to finish off the Twins.

-Volpe had another notable game, going 3-for-5 with a triple and two runs scored. He’s now reached base in 31 consecutive games — same with Judge — and has raised his average to .290, the highest he’s been at since April 25.

Game MVP: Aaron Judge

Judge got the Yankees on the board first and put the game out of reach with his triple. He also helped to give the Yankees an insurance run to give themselves some breathing room for the bullpen.

Highlights

What’s next

The Yankees finish up their three-game series with the Twins on Thursday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Marcus Stroman (5-2, 2.73 ERA) will be on the mound and Pablo Lopez (5-5, 4.84 ERA) will take the bump for Minnesota.