Yankees fail to sweep Twins, blow chance to gain ground in AL playoff race

Even the Yankees’ long-standing dominance of the Twins is not boundless.

Aaron Boone’s team wasted an opportunity to gain ground on several contenders in the American League playoff chase, getting shut down by All-Star righty Joe Ryan and two relievers in a 4-1 loss Wednesday to deadline-gutted Minnesota at the Stadium after taking the first two games of the series.

The start was delayed nearly two hours by heavy rain, and the Yankees could not take advantage of losses by the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Guardians and Rangers earlier in the night.

With their first loss to the Twins in their past 10 head-to-head meetings, the Yanks (64-57) slipped 1 ¹/₂ games behind Boston for the second AL wild-card position and remained one game ahead of Cleveland for the final playoff spot.

The Yankees, who will open a five-game road trip Friday in St. Louis, still own an overall winning percentage of .735 (125-45) against the Twins since 2002.

Rookie righty Cam Schlittler completed at least five innings for the fifth time in six major league starts, allowing one run on two hits with two walks and six strikeouts before manager Aaron Boone replaced him in a 1-1 game with Yerry De los Santos — after 86 pitches — to start the sixth.

De los Santos faced three batters and gave up three hits, with all three runners scoring in the inning.

The 24-year-old Schlittler retired the first nine batters he faced on just 34 pitches through three innings, including three consecutive strikeouts bridging the latter two frames.

The Yankees opened the scoring against Ryan (12-5) in the third on a two-out solo home run by Cody Bellinger, his second blast of the series and 22nd of the season.

But that was their lone run against Ryan before he departed with two outs in the seventh.

Giancarlo Stanton, who started his third straight game in right field, nearly took Ryan deep in the first on a scorched ball that was hauled in at the center field wall by Byron Buxton.

“Starting with a great fastball, unique slot, kind of that low [angle]. So that really plays up, strike-thrower, so he’s gonna make you earn it,” Boone said of Ryan before the game. “Couple of good secondary offerings, but it starts with the fastball that’s very unique. And if you’re gonna have success, you gotta get to it a little bit.”

The Twins had their first base runner against Schlittler on a leadoff walk to Trevor Larnach in the fourth and their first hit when Buxton followed with a 10-pitch double into the left field corner.

An infield out by Luke Keaschall evened the score, but Buxton was stranded at third by Schlittler on a strikeout of Kody Clemens and a pop-up by Matt Wallner.

Ryan struck out Stanton, Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe in succession following Bellinger’s blast.

The 1-1 knot remained until the Twins plated three runs against De los Santos in the sixth on two infield singles and a two-run double by Clemens, the son of former Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens.

Royce Lewis made it 4-1 with a two-out RBI double against Mark Leiter Jr.

Volpe got as far as third after doubling off Ryan in the seventh, but lefty reliever Kody Funderburk struck out Austin Wells for the third out.

Boone said after the game that righty-swinging Paul Goldschmidt was not available to pinch-hit in that spot due to a right-knee injury that may require an IL stint.