Run support hard to find as Cortes, Yanks fall to Twins

MINNEAPOLIS -- Nestor Cortes winced and arced his neck toward Target Field's left-field wall, tracking Byron Buxton’s go-ahead home run in the sixth inning on Tuesday. With runs in short supply for the Yankees’ sputtering offense, the drive seemed as though it would be decisive.

Indeed, Cortes exited the playing field shortly after Buxton’s trip around the basepaths, and Trevor Larnach lifted a two-run blast off Ron Marinaccio as the Yankees absorbed a 6-2 loss to the Twins at Target Field, New York’s seventh defeat in 12 games.

“There’s going to be ups and downs this season, and we’re definitely in a down,” said shortstop Anthony Volpe. “But I feel like there’s so much talent in this locker room, and this lineup specifically, that we’re going to come out of it if everyone just keeps with it.”

It marked the Twins’ fourth win in six games against the Yankees this year, clinching the season series. The Bombers had not lost a season series to Minnesota since 2001, when they dropped four of six games to a squad that counted Corey Koskie, Cristian Guzmán and Torii Hunter among its top position players.

“I thought, up and down, there was better intent and better aggressiveness with the at-bats,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “Now we’ve got to finish through and get some guys rolling.”

After Monday’s series opener, Aaron Judge spoke about his belief that the club needed to take a more aggressive approach early in games. Facing Minnesota starter Joe Ryan, Judge helped in that regard, stroking a first-inning single, advancing on a wild pitch and scoring on DJ LeMahieu’s hit.

There was an early lead on the board, but the Yankees couldn’t sustain that pressure. Ryan scattered seven hits, all singles, leaning primarily on his fastball in a seven-strikeout performance as he became the Majors’ first five-game winner this season.

“He definitely made adjustments and really started executing later in the game,” Volpe said.

New York’s other run against Ryan came in the fifth; it was a gift, as Aaron Hicks scored on a potential Judge double play ball, with the relay throw skipping past first baseman Donovan Solano.

“We’ve [had] a lot of one- and two-run [outputs], and that doesn’t lend itself to much margin for error on the mound,” Boone said. “We’ve got to change it.”

A third-inning error by Volpe (the rookie’s third in three games) opened the door for Solano and Jorge Polanco to lash run-scoring doubles down the left-field line off Cortes. Boone said that the ball, hit by Michael A. Taylor, was “a do-or-die play” due to its backspin.

“It had weird spin, but still, it’s soft enough that I’ve just got to stay down on it and make the play,” Volpe said.

Cortes rated his start as “average,” as he was knocked for four runs (three earned) and five hits over five-plus innings.

“I feel like I could have done a better job locating to the inside part of the plate in that last inning,” Cortes said.

With Cortes at 88 pitches through five innings, Boone sent his hurler back to the mound. As the skipper explained later: “He’s got to go. We can’t run to the bullpen in the fourth or fifth inning every night in April. Nestor is one of our dudes.”

Cortes grooved a fastball that Polanco belted to the wall in left-center field to lead off the frame; Hicks was unable to secure the ball, which Statcast calculated had a 30 percent catch probability, and it fell for a double. Buxton followed by tattooing a cutter into the left-field seats, punctuating the blast with a flip of his bat.

“We’ve got to hopefully build a little bit on today and the fact that this was better than yesterday,” Boone said, “but we’ve got to hang some crooked numbers up there, bottom line.”