For 5 1/3 innings, the New York Yankees were literally perfect against the visiting Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.
New York did not get the perfect game or the no-hitter but notched another victory over the Twins and can complete a sweep of the season series on Thursday night before hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Yankees are attempting to notch their first season sweep of the Twins since 2009, when they last won a World Series title. New York also is attempting to win eight straight overall for the first time since winning nine in a row from June 9-18, 2022.
After losing four of seven meetings last season to drop the season series for the first time since 2001, the Yankees have outscored the Twins 28-7 in the first five meetings this year after recording a 9-5 victory on Wednesday.
Carlos Rodon retired the first 16 hitters and allowed two runs in six innings while New York's offense collected nine hits and six walks. The Yankees won for the fifth time in 14 games this season when they did not hit a homer.
"We got a really good offense and the homer's a big part of that, but what you're seeing is a group of hitters that night in and night out are taking tough at-bats," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "That's been kind of the mantra."
Aaron Judge extended his on-base streak to 31 games and drove in five runs, sandwiching an RBI groundout and a bases-loaded walk around a bases-clearing triple. Anthony Volpe also had three hits to extend his on-base streak to 31 games, while Giancarlo Stanton contributed an RBI single, Gleyber Torres had a two-run double and Alex Verdugo chipped in a sacrifice fly.
Minnesota is hitting .140 (22-for-157) this season against the Yankees and has eight hits in the series.
Carlos Santana homered to break up Rodon's perfect game bid and Royce Lewis went deep for the second straight game after being activated off the injured list on Tuesday. Lewis, who also homered in the season opener, is the first player in franchise history to homer in his first three games of a season since the team moved from Washington to Minnesota in 1961.
"From beginning to end, we have improvements to make when we're playing this team," Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We haven't played well against them this year, and it's five games now and we need to do better. We need to do a lot better."
New York's Marcus Stroman (5-2, 2.73 ERA) will attempt to win a third straight start on Thursday. He has allowed two earned runs or fewer in eight of his 12 starts this season. Stroman earned a win on Friday in San Francisco by allowing two runs on six hits in 7 1/3 innings to match his longest outing of the year.
The right-hander is 2-4 with a 4.95 ERA in seven career starts against the Twins, whom he held to two hits over six innings in a 4-0 win on May 15 at Minnesota.
Pablo Lopez (5-5, 4.84 ERA), who opposed Stroman last month and allowed three runs on 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings, will start for the Twins.
Lopez ended a three-start losing streak on Friday at Houston when he gave up one run on six hits and tied a season high by pitching seven innings. He also allowed one run or fewer for the fifth time in 12 starts this season and the first time since May 9 against the Seattle Mariners.
Lopez is 0-2 with a 2.95 ERA in three career starts against the Yankees.
