Yankees check first box, head to postseason for third straight season

MINNEAPOLIS – It wasn’t a picture-perfect night for baseball at Target Field on Monday night, but the Yankees didn’t seem to mind.

José Caballero homered and doubled and Aaron Judge went deep for the first time since his return from the IL as the Yankees rallied to beat the Twins, 8-3. New York had already wrapped up a spot in the 2026 American League postseason when the Blue Jays lost to the Tigers, 6-5.

It’s the third straight season and the eighth time in Aaron Boone’s nine years as manager that the Yankees have reached the postseason.

In a game played in a constant drizzle, the Yankees trailed 2-1 when George Lombard Jr. led off the eighth with a double to the wall in left-center off Twins reliever Andrew Morris (4-8). Ryan McMahon’s infield single moved Lombard to third, and after Austin Wells struck out, Caballero lined a single up the middle to tie the score.

A double steal moved up both runners, and with the infield drawn in, Rice blooped a broken-bat single to short center off A.J. Minter to drive in two runs.

After Cody Bellinger hit an infield single, Judge capped the six-run inning by crushing a Minter pitch deep into the second deck in left for a three-run homer that put the Yankees on top, 7-2.

Yankees starter Will Warren held the Twins in check until they knocked him out with two unearned runs in the sixth inning. With one out, Kody Clemens hit a smash that went through the glove of Ryan McMahon at third base for an error.

One out later, Josh Bell singled off the glove of a leaping Lombard at shortstop. Emmanuel Rodriguez then laced a triple into the gap in left-center to put the Twins on top, 2-1.

Caballero’s homer with two outs in the third was the Yankees’ first hit and gave them a 1-0 lead. But former Oriole Dean Kremer allowed just one more hit – a Rice single in the sixth – before the Yankees rallied against Morris and Minter in the eighth.