NEW YORK _ Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was informed about the Twins' struggles at Yankee Stadium and shrugged. He seemed not to be very keen about being connected to a futility streak that occurred under the watch of his predecessors.
"As I sit here right now, even after it was brought up, I still have not spent very much time thinking about it at all," he said Saturday morning before the Twins faced the Yankees. "I know everyone that's been with the team has a history and has memories. Those aren't going to be forgotten easily, whether they're positive or negative but truthfully I don't think it matters."
What mattered to him is that the Twins continue to do what they have done a couple times this season, respond after a bad game.
"You are not going to play flawless baseball," he said. "To this point in the year we have been able to put those types of games behind us pretty easily. I think it's because of the people in this clubhouse."
And the Twins responded. Jake Odorizzi had a second consecutive strong outing. Mitch Garver, C.J. Cron and Nelson Cruz hit home runs. The bullpen took some blows but held on. The offense kept tacking on runs.
They emerged from the late-inning percolation with a 7-3 win, their first win in this ballpark since June 26, 2016. It halted the Yankees eight-game winning streak and run of 13 wins in 14 games here.
With one step taken, the Twins can now take a big leap with a win tomorrow. That would mark their first series win here since 2014.
Sunday's game has been pushed back to 3 p.m. Central time to allow expected storms to move through the area.
Odorizzi played the role of the stopper, baffling Yankee batters for six innings while holding them to two hits and four walks while striking out eight. He ran his scoreless streak to 13 innings, one of his best stretches in two seasons with the Twins.
With Odorizzi in control, the Twins pecked away at Yankees left-hander J.A. Happ.
Mitch Garver blasted a two-run home run in the third. Byron Buxton scored during a double play in the fifth to make it 3-0, then Cron's homer to left gave them a 4-0 lead.
After the Twins were charged two errors in their loss on Friday, the Yankees made mistakes on Saturday. A throwing error by Gleyber Torres on what could have been an inning-ending double play instead allowed Garver to advance to third then score on a force play.
And Cron moved to second on a balk called on Stephen Tarpley then scored on Jonathan Schoop's single.
The Yankees took it to the Twins bullpen after Odorizzi left the game, scoring two runs off Trevor Hildenberger in the seventh then getting a Gary Sanchez homer off of Blake Parker in the eighth.
Cruz's blast came in the ninth, before Taylor Rogers came in for the 10th.
Three outs later, the losing streak at Yankee Stadium was over.
