The Yankees beat the Twins 8-5 for their 8th consecutive win to end the season with the Dodgers series on deck in the Bronx

NEW YORK — Trent Grisham homered and had three RBIs, doubling his totals in both categories, and the New York Yankees completed a season sweep of the Minnesota Twins with an 8-5 victory on Thursday night for their eighth consecutive victory. .

New York slugger Juan Soto was removed with discomfort in his left forearm after a 56-minute rain delay before the sixth inning.

Gleyber Torres hit a two-run double at first base for the Yankees (45-19), who tied Philadelphia for the best record in the majors. They have moved to 25-6 in their last 31 games and extended their longest winning streak since a nine-game streak in June 2022.

On deck this weekend, the Yankees renew an old October rivalry as they welcome Shohei Ohtani and the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers to the Bronx for a highly anticipated interleague series loaded with star power.

“I think it’s going to be an amazing atmosphere,” coach Aaron Boone said.

Gold Glove shortstop Anthony Volpe made two outstanding defensive plays in the late innings, spreading out to catch Carlos Correa’s sharp shot with two to end the eighth. Volpe also ran with his speed, stealing third and scoring on catcher Christian Vázquez’s throwing error after hitting an infield single.

Giancarlo Stanton walked three times and hit an RBI single. Austin Wells contributed a sacrifice fly as the AL East leaders finished 6-0 against Minnesota, a perennial Yankee punching bag. After outscoring the Twins 36-12 this year, New York is 123-44 against them since 2002 — including the playoffs.

Correa singled and drove in two runs for Minnesota. Vázquez, the No. 9 hitter, also went deep.

With a 7-2 lead after four innings, Yankees starter Marcus Stroman couldn’t get past five.

Minnesota scored three times in the fifth, including an RBI double by Max Kepler on a fly ball that landed just in the left field corner. Aaron Judge, making a rare start on the left rather than the center, ran towards the ball and pulled up well before it fell, apparently thinking it would be a foul.

A confused Stroman held out his hands for a moment, wondering what happened.

Stroman was charged with five runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings, just the 10th time this season that a Yankees starter failed to last five. The right-hander was 3-0 with a 1.01 ERA in his previous four starts.

New York starters have allowed three runs or fewer in a franchise-record 22 consecutive games, going 17-2 with a 1.55 ERA during that span.

Luke Weaver (4-1) worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Clay Holmes got three strikeouts for his 18th save.

Grisham added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to complete his two-run homer on the first pitch he saw from Pablo López (5-6) in the second.

Working carefully for New York’s dangerous sluggers at the 2-3-4 spots, the All-Star right-hander issued a career-high six walks – all to Soto, Judge and Stanton – in four innings. That got López into trouble in the third, when consecutive full-count walks to these three hitters loaded the bases with no one out in a 2-all game. All three runners scored.

Grisham, batting ninth in his 15th start this season, entered batting .051 with one home run and three RBIs.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Twins: 3B Royce Lewis and CF Byron Buxton, often injured, rested. Lewis returned Tuesday after missing 58 games with a right quadriceps strain. The plan is for him to play all three games in Pittsburgh this weekend, coach Rocco Baldelli said. Lewis, who was injured on Opening Day, is the first player in franchise history to hit a home run in each of the first three games of the season.

Yankees: LF Alex Verdugo was initially rested after running face first into the left-center fence to make a catch Wednesday night. He came in for Soto in the sixth, with Judge switching from left field to Soto’s right field spot. … 3B DJ LeMahieu also rested.

NEXT

Twins: RHP Joe Ryan (4-4, 3.38 ERA) starts Friday night at Pittsburgh against RHP Mitch Keller (7-3, 3.42) in the opener of a three-game series. Ryan gave up four home runs in five innings last Saturday in a 5-2 loss at Houston.

Yankees: RHP Cody Poteet (2-0, 2.45 ERA) makes his 12th major league start and third with New York. He faces Dodgers rookie RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2, 3.32), pursued by the Yankees in the offseason before signing a $325 million contract with Los Angeles. Yamamoto met with the Yankees in California and then New York while they were recruiting him. “I felt like we were very involved and had a really good dialogue. I really liked him,” Boone said. “He seemed very comfortable in his skin. Very easy to deal with. Getting engaged.”

___

APMLB: