NEW YORK — On the 250th Fourth of July, the only fireworks at Yankee Stadium belonged to Minnesota. The Twins launched six home runs on a 95-degree afternoon and buried the Yankees 11-4 in front of 40,156 sweltering fans in the Bronx.
The blowout erased whatever momentum Friday night’s streak-snapping win had created. The Yankees have now lost eight of nine and 11 of their last 14, falling to 49-39.
The damage started with an experiment. With Carlos Rodon on the injured list, the Yankees handed the ball to Brendan Beck for his first major league start, and the Twins scored three runs before the rookie recorded an out.
By the time the day ended, the loss carried a historical marker.
The Yankees allowed six home runs in a game for the first time since Aug. 15, 2019, against Cleveland, a seven-year low point for a pitching staff that had been the Yankees’ one dependable strength.
Just before the game, a clubhouse quip emerged, “We’ve got the guy from Great Britain pitching on the Fourth of July.” Three hours and 21 minutes later, the gamble was in shamble.
The Beck experiment lasted 3 2/3 innings
Beck’s teammates had joked about the assignment before the game, with Ben Rice noting the Yankees were sending a World Baseball Classic pitcher for Great Britain to the mound on America’s birthday. The afternoon gave the joke a bitter edge.
The rookie opened with a walk, gave up a Byron Buxton RBI double and then watched Kody Clemens, son of Roger, hammer a full-count slider for a two-run homer, all before the first out. Luke Keaschall and Alex Jackson added back-to-back homers in the second for a 5-0 lead over the Yankees.
Beck needed 58 pitches to get through two innings, and Aaron Boone pulled him with two out in the fourth rather than let him face the top of the order a third time. His final line: five runs on five hits, two walks and three strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings, with three homers allowed. The Yankees optioned him back to Triple-A after the game.
Beck did not hide from the performance.
“Obviously, not good results putting us in a hole early, making the defense stand out there for a long time in the first, and taking the crowd out of it,” Beck said. “Not the way we want to start the game on an exciting day at the yard.”
Boone pointed to the profile that made Beck successful in the minors and absent Saturday.
“He relies on elite command and getting it to where he wants,” Boone said, “and it looked like he had some mistakes with some secondary [pitches] in the strike zone.”
A comeback that died with the bases loaded
The Yankees lineup nearly rescued the day. Jasson Dominguez accounted for the only two hits off Twins starter Zebby Matthews, doubling in the second and homering in the fourth, and the offense broke through in a three-run fifth.
Max Schuemann, in the lineup only because he beat out Spencer Jones as the corresponding roster move for Beck, launched a 418-foot, two-run homer, and Cody Bellinger followed with an RBI double for his first run batted in since June 17. Matthews exited during the inning with a lacerated right foot, and suddenly the Yankees trailed 6-4.
The sixth inning offered the Yankees the game. Anthony Volpe singled, Jazz Chisholm Jr. dropped a bunt single and Schuemann walked to load the bases with one out. Pinch hitter Amed Rosario struck out, and Boone then sent Paul Goldschmidt, mired in an 0-for-20 slide, to face lefty Taylor Rogers. Goldschmidt flied out to end the threat.
Boone defended the call afterward as the game’s pivot point.
“I’m going to take Goldie against the lefty there, two outs with them loaded,” Boone said. “Our shot to really grab the game.”
The Yankees finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine.
Doval, errors and a familiar eighth inning
Josh Bell restored the cushion with a solo homer off Ryan Yarbrough in the seventh, then the eighth collapsed in a pattern Yankees fans know too well.
Chisholm bobbled Keaschall’s grounder to open the inning against Camilo Doval, and Minnesota sent seven men to the plate for four unearned runs on a Buxton sacrifice fly, a Clemens RBI single and Bell’s second homer of the day. Doval left to boos as fans who had swung their shirts in support an inning earlier went quiet.
Bell finished with a three-hit, three-RBI afternoon for his 13th career multihomer game, homering from both sides of the plate.
The defensive rot has become its own story. Ryan McMahon added a ninth-inning throwing error, the Yankees’ 19th error in their last 14 games, a stretch in which they have allowed 24 unearned runs after giving up 22 across the season’s first 74 contests.
A rubber match with the Rays looming
The Yankees’ pitching staff reached another alarming low in their 11-5 loss to the Twins. They allowed six home runs in a game for the first time since Aug. 15, 2019, when they gave up seven in a 19-5 loss to Cleveland.
Doval also made unwanted franchise history. He became the first pitcher in Yankees history to allow four or more runs in back-to-back relief appearances while facing seven or fewer batters in each outing.
The offensive concern is growing, too. The Yankees have now gone 16 straight games without scoring more than five runs. It is their longest such stretch since 1991, when they endured a 20-game run.
Suzyn Waldman added a sharp historical layer to the night, suggesting John Sterling and George Steinbrenner would have had plenty to say about the 2026 Yankees.
“Happy birthday, America. It would have been the 96th birthday of George Steinbrenner. And, of course, today is also the birthday of my partner John Sterling, who would have been 88. I like to think that John and George are here somewhere, and they’re sitting and watching from overhead, and that they all have plenty to say about this ballgame to each other.”
The series is decided Sunday at 1:35 p.m. at Yankee Stadium, with Ryan Weathers facing Twins ace Joe Ryan in the rubber match. A four-game set against the first-place Rays opens Monday in Tampa, and the Yankees will arrive there either steadied by a series win or carrying nine losses in 10 games into the biggest week of their summer.
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