Twins embarrass Yankees, who see Wild Card lead slip | Rapid reaction

The Twins owned the Yankees, 10-5, at Target Field on Tuesday, as Sonny Gray and Jonathan Loaisiga were terrible.

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s supposed to be 58 degrees with clouds at night in Oakland on Oct. 3, according to AccuWeather, a forecasting service.

The Yankees might want to think about how to dress accordingly.

Their grip on the right to host the American League Wild Card slipped again Tuesday with an embarrassing 10-5 loss to the Twins.

The crowd watched Minnesota, now 11 games under .500 and playing for nothing, blitz starting pitcher Sonny Gray and the Yankees’ bullpen — a day after the Yankees drubbed them.

And manager Aaron Boone’s squad’s lead over the A’s dropped to just two games, with Oakland beating Baltimore earlier in the night.

The Yankees aren’t in much danger of missing the playoffs. The Mariners trail Oakland by eight games with the Rays behind them by 8 1/2.

It would take a bafflingYankees collapse for that to happen.

But a one-and-done? Just like in 2015, when the Astros ended the Yankees early? 

Why not?

What it means

The Yankees have won just four of their last 10 games, which is inexcusable, considering they’re at the end of a three-city road trip that included stops in Oakland and Seattle.

The Yankees were up 5 1/2 games on Oakland on Sept. 1.

What happened?

We’re not going to get bogged down in the gory details.

It was bad, though.

In the second inning, Didi Gregorius tripled, lining a ball over the shortstop and racing as it rolled past center fielder Jake Cave, who misplayed it. Gregorius scored on Gary Sanchez’s subsequent fly ball to left field.

The Yankees were up, 1-0.

Then Gray reminded the Yankees why they pulled him from the rotation Aug. 2.

He gave up three runs (two earned) in three innings, throwing 63 pitches while walking three, allowing three hits and getting two strikeouts. He wasn’t helped by his personal catcher Austin Romine, whose passed ball allowed the Twins’ first run to score. With the bases loaded, Romine set up high and Gray threw it even higher, the ball bouncing out of Romine’s glove and to the backstop. Joe Mauer scored.

Boone brought rookie Jonathan Loaisiga in at 3-1 Twins in the fourth inning. It was Loaisiga’s second career relief appearance and it didn’t go swimmingly. He was charged with six earned runs in 1 1/3 innings.

Loaisiga came out with the bases loaded in favor of Tommy Kahnle, who surrendered a booming, center-field grand slam to Joe Mauer that made it 10-1 Minnesota. Mauer got a curtain call from the home crowd.

Didi Gregorius contributed a grand slam in the sixth inning. After getting three hits on Monday, Gary Sanchez started at DH and went hitless.

Oh, and the Twins went with a bullpen day, starting with Tyler Duffey, who entered the night with a 9.00 ERA.

Next

Yankees righty Luis Severino (17-7, 3.52 ERA) vs. Twins righty Jake Odorizzi (5-10, 4.57 ERA) at 8:10 p.m. EST Tuesday at Target Field.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.