The New York Yankees took the field with several players experiencing food poisoning on Wednesday, and their latest loss hardly made anyone feel better.
Coming off another difficult showing at the plate, the Yankees attempt to halt a seven-game losing streak Friday night when they host the Minnesota Twins.
New York is 12-15 since losing Aaron Judge to a fractured right rib. The Yankees are on their longest skid since dropping nine straight Aug. 12-22, 2023, after allowing four runs in the 11th inning off a 6-2 loss to Detroit that also extended their home losing streak to five.
The Yankees were outscored 22-8 by the Tigers and have been outscored 43-17 during their skid.
New York finished with seven hits Wednesday and scored twice in the ninth when Amed Rosario homered and Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored on a wild pitch. The Yankees also committed two errors, bringing their total to 18 in the past 14 games.
“There’s no way of sugarcoating it. We’re capable of way more,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Look, you have stretches where it’s tough and you’re missing some guys. But this was a really difficult week for us offensively, coupled with not playing clean enough and taking care of the ball well enough.”
During the losing streak New York is hitting .137, and over the past 14 games (3-11) the Yankees have batted .180 with 15 homers and 143 strikeouts while several regulars are slumping. Cody Bellinger is in a 5-for-46 slide, Ben Rice is in a 9-for-54 rut, Chisholm has eight hits in 40 at-bats and Paul Goldschmidt is 9-for-46.
The Yankees are hoping to get some reinforcements Friday when Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon return from the injured list. Grisham has been out since injuring his hamstring June 12 and McMahon has not played since June 21 due to a throat infection.
Minnesota is 5-25 in its past 30 regular-season games at Yankee Stadium but enters the series with 10 wins in its past 16 games after taking two of three at Houston.
In their past 16 games, the Twins are batting .281 and have scored 96 runs while hitting 25 homers. In Wednesday’s 8-3 win, Josh Bell, Kody Clemens and Luke Keaschall homered as the Twins hit at least three homers for the 12th time.
“We’ve proved we have a really good offense,” Bell said. “Everyone feels pretty comfortable. No one feels the pressure of having to do it themselves. It feels great. Everyone can kind of relax and go and you know someone is going to come up and do the damage.”
Byron Buxton missed the series with a right hip impingement after also experiencing hip discomfort in May. He went hitless in his final eight at-bats last weekend against Colorado before sitting out and is day-to-day as of now.
New York will open the series with Gerrit Cole (2-3, 4.06 ERA), who was tagged for nine runs on 16 hits in 9 2/3 innings in his past two starts at Detroit and Boston. Cole has a 6.12 ERA in his past five starts after returning from Tommy John surgery with two scoreless outings.
The right-hander is 5-0 with a 2.43 ERA in six career starts against the Twins.
After Detroit’s trio of Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Troy Melton combined to allow two runs and four hits against the Yankees, rookie righty Mike Paredes (0-1, 4.26) pitches for Minnesota. Paredes is filling in while Bailey Ober recovers from right elbow inflammation.
Paredes has not thrown more than 75 pitches in his four starts and took the loss on Saturday when he allowed three runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings against Colorado.
–Field Level Media
