Yankees 8, Twins 1: Fried's First Win Since April, Then Jones's 10th

A four-seamer over the 23-foot wall, then seven innings that finally counted as a win

September 15, 2026 - Minneapolis - Cody Bellinger hit Bailey Ober's four-seamer over the 23-foot wall in right-center two batters into the game. Ben Rice scored ahead of him. 2-0. Max Fried then threw seven innings, and the New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins 8-1 a night after they had clinched a postseason berth in the same park.

Clear, 69 degrees. Wind 9 mph, out to right. First pitch 6:41 p.m. Attendance 27,882. The game lasted 2 hours, 45 minutes. New York had 14 hits. Minnesota had seven. The Yankees are 88-63. The Twins are 70-81. Aaron Judge sat as he works back from a right rib cage fracture, the MLB recap said. The lineup that showed up without him still scored eight.

Fried (5-4) allowed one run, six hits, no walks, and six strikeouts on 88 pitches. The ESPN recap called it his first win since April. The MLB recap said it was his first walk-free outing since April 11 at Tampa Bay. Those two facts belong in the same paragraph. He had been good. He had not been a winner. Tuesday fixed the second one without asking him to change the first.

One run in the second, then Fried picked him off

Royce Lewis reached in the second. Emmanuel Rodriguez singled him home, a sharp ground ball to center. 2-1. That was Minnesota's night on the scoreboard. Fried picked Rodriguez off. The rally that might have been a two-run inning became a one-run inning that ended with a caught runner. Fried did not walk another batter. He did not need to. He attacked the zone, the MLB recap said, and he kept doing it for seven.

George Lombard Jr. singled Heliot Ramos home in the third. 3-1. Ober was still in a game he could win if the Yankees stopped adding. They did not stop. They waited until the sixth.

Ramos doubled Rice home in the sixth, Bellinger to third. 4-1. Spencer Jones then hit his 10th homer to center, a fly ball that scored Ramos and Luis García Jr.. 7-1. Four in the inning. The MLB recap noted Jones became the 11th Yankee with at least 10 homers this year, the first time New York has had 11 double-digit home run hitters since 2019. Taylor Rogers was on the mound for the homer. Ober had already thrown 5 1/3: nine hits, three runs, two walks, three strikeouts, 101 pitches. The sixth was the inning that took the rest of the night off the table.

Jones against lefties, Bellinger at .272, and a 14-hit card

Bellinger went 3-for-4 with the homer, two RBI, a walk, and a run. The MLB recap put his average at .272, his highest since June 22, and said he has four homers in his last seven games. Jones went 1-for-5 with three RBI on the one swing that mattered. Ramos went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs, and an RBI. Lombard went 2-for-4 with a steal, a walk, and an RBI. Anthony Volpe doubled, walked, and stole a base. José Caballero singled Lombard home in the ninth. 8-1. Fourteen hits. One of them was the first-inning homer. One of them was the three-run shot in the sixth. The other 12 were the reason Minnesota never got the ball back.

Ober (7-6) took the loss. Rogers allowed Jones's homer and four runs, none earned, in 1 2/3. Andrew Morris gave up Caballero's ninth-inning single. Luke Keaschall went 3-for-4. Rodriguez had two hits and the only RBI. Kody Clemens tripled. Minnesota had traffic. It did not have a second run.

Ryan Yarbrough threw two scoreless innings after Fried. New York did not need a closer. It needed seven from Fried and a lineup that did not treat a clincher hangover as an excuse. The MLB recap said manager Aaron Boone still used seven of the nine starters from Monday. The Rays beat the Athletics 2-1 on Tuesday and lead the East by 3 1/2. That is the other number New York is playing against.

A berth in the bag, an East race that is not

The Yankees clinched on Monday. Tuesday was the night after. Fried finally got a win that matched the starts. Jones hit 10. Bellinger looked like the middle-of-the-order bat New York has needed while Judge works back. Those are September facts. They are not the East title.

Fried told the MLB recap he is already looking at Tampa Bay next week, including a likely start in a doubleheader. That series at Yankee Stadium is the one this 8-1 is pointing at. Minnesota is 70-81 and has been out of this conversation for a while. New York is in October and still chasing the club that beat Oakland on a walk-off. Both things can be true. Tuesday only settled the first half of the sentence.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Fried at 23 pitching fantasy points, third on the Tuesday board. Bellinger had 9 hitting FP. Jones had 8. Ramos had 6. Lombard had 7. The Yankees finished with 18 team FP, tied for third. Minnesota finished at minus-7.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*