Yankees’ Aaron Judge gives a little extra in 4-0 defeat of Twins

In a sense, each of Aaron Judge’s trio of doubles to the center-field wall was a victory for the Twins on Wednesday night. Judge already had demonstrated what happens when he really connects with a pitch.

Judge smashed a 95-mph first-inning fastball from Pablo López into the third row of the third deck in left field, the first blow of a monster night for the 2022 AL MVP. The ball traveled 467 feet, one of the 10 longest home runs in Target Field history, and set the hard-hit tone for the Yankees’ 4-0 victory over the Twins.

“It looked like a Home Run Derby homer to me,” López said afterward. “I just turned around and saw the thing looked like … " His words trailed off as he made a tiny circle with his thumb and forefinger.

In winning the first two games of this three-game set, New York ended the Twins’ streak of six consecutive series won.

Of course, when you score one run in two games, it’s hard to expect much else.

Minnesota managed only four hits on the night and advanced no runner past second base in the final seven innings. Marcus Stroman struck out only two batters but gave up only two hits and three walks in six innings, turning most of the Twins’ turns at bat into a sometimes-tedious wait for Judge’s next at-bat.

BOXSCORE: Yankees 4, Twins 0

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The Yankees slugger matched the Twins’ four hits by rocketing four baseballs a total of 1,588 feet, or an average of 397 feet with every swing, each of the last three of them over Willi Castro’s head in center field.

And that wasn’t even the worst part of Castro’s night.

The Twins’ all-around utility player caught Anthony Volpe’s bases-loaded fly ball on the run in medium-depth center field in the second inning, and he continued jogging toward the Twins’ dugout. Trouble was, Volpe’s pop fly was only the second out of the inning, and Gleyber Torres was tagging up at third base.

By the time Castro finally realized his mistake and threw toward home, Torres already was crossing the plate with the game’s second run. Though it’s possible Torres would have scored anyway, a sizable portion of the announced crowd of 22,235 booed the mental mistake as Castro trudged back to his position.

The situation got no worse, since Juan Soto followed by also hitting the ball to Castro, who turned and threw the ball as high as he could into the seats in frustration. Then he ran to the dugout and apologized to López and Twins manager Rocco Baldelli.

“Watching him be frustrated with himself is really what we’re seeing here, and it’s understandable, totally understandable,” Baldelli said. “He needs to do a better job of controlling himself, but I know why he’s feeling the way he’s feeling.”

Judge became the fifth player ever to collect four extra-base hits in a game at Target Field — somewhat symbolically, more Yankees have done it (Judge and Brian Roberts in 2014) than Twins (Nelson Cruz in 2019) — and moved into a tie for the AL lead in doubles with 13.

“I learned a lesson,” López said of pitching to the 6-foot-7 behemoth with a quick bat. “When you’re pitching to someone that tall, [pitching] high means higher than high.”

When he came to the plate in the ninth with a shot at his first career five-hit night, word of Judge’s exploits clearly had reached Josh Staumont. The Twins reliever kept the ball low and eventually walked Judge.

Not a bad idea.