Yankees lose to Twins, missing an opportunity to gain ground in postseason race

The Yankees missed out on a huge opportunity to pick up ground in the race for the postseason on Wednesday night.

The start of their series finale against Minnesota was delayed for 1:52 by rain and by the fifth inning the out-of-town scoreboard showed that AL East leader Toronto and second-place Boston had lost as had the team chasing them for the final AL wild card, Cleveland.

Nevertheless, the Yankees couldn’t cash in against a Twins team they’d beat in their previous nine meetings. All-Star righthander Joe Ryan and a relief corps that had to be cobbled together after Minnesota dealt away all of its high-leverage relievers at the trading deadline kept the Yankees stifled and handed them a 4-1 defeat before 44,466 who endured high humidity at the Stadium.

The Yankees (64-57) still trail Toronto by six games, Boston by 1 1⁄2 games and remain a game ahead of Cleveland.

“We’ve got to go play well right now — and there’s nothing you can do about all that,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We see it all, but . . . if we want to catch those teams in theory or we want to get to where we want to go, we’ve got to play well over an extended period.”

The Yankees relief pitchers let a 1-1 game get away after starter Cam Schlittler threw five solid innings and the lineup produced only five hits — two after the third inning.

Cody Bellinger’s 22nd home run in the third inning left the only mark on the Twins, who scored the game’s last four runs.

The Yankees had a solid chance to cut into the four-run lead in the seventh inning. Anthony Volpe had a one-out double and moved to third on a Ryan McMahon ground out to bring up lefthanded hitting — and badly slumping — Austin Wells.

The Twins went to southpaw reliever Kody Funderburke, a situation that would normally dictate righty hitting Paul Goldschmidt coming off the bench. But Goldschmidt wasn’t available because of a mild right knee strain suffered catching a drifting foul pop-up in Tuesday night’s win. Wells struck out to end the inning.

Boone said a decision on whether he will require an IL stint will be made, but Goldschmidt said, “I don’t know — there’s a chance, but I don’t think it’s anything longterm.”

In the ninth, Giancarlo Stanton had a leadoff single, but any chance for a rally was snuffed when Ben Rice followed by hitting into a double play. Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded out to first base to end it.

With the score tied 1-1, Minnesota greeted reliever Yerry de los Santos with three straight hits to start what became a three-run sixth-inning rally. After a pair of infield singles, the big hit was a two-run double to right center by Kody Clemens that centerfielder Trent Grisham bobbled allowing Clemens to reach third base. He scored on Royce Lewis’ double down the leftfield line to make the score 4-1.

Boone said of de los Santos, “he just got into a deep count with Clemens there, who obviously changed the game.”

Schlittler went only five innings but had the Yankees in the game with a chance to win when he exited with the score tied at 1. He’d thrown 52 of his 86 pitches to get through the fourth and fifth innings. With Byron Buxton due up after winning a 10-pitch battle for a double their previous face off, Schlitter was lifted.

“I’m a rookie and you have to earn that,” Schlittler said of potentially pitching the sixth inning.

Cody Bellinger put the Yankees on the board first in the third inning with a two-out solo home run into the second deck in rightfield. The Twins drew even in the top of the fourth as Buxton’s double put two in scoring position and Luke Keaschall followed with a run-scoring groundout.

Notes & quotes: Giancarlo Stanton started in rightfield for the fourth time in five days and it’s sounding like this will continue for a bit while Aaron Judge ramps up his throwing program in his return from a strained flexor in his right elbow. Boone said Stanton is holding up well physically in his return to the outfield, that having no game Thursday is a good break for him and that Stanton is unlikely to play the field in Sunday’s afternoon finale of the three-game series in St. Louis. Judge is now making throws at 120 feet, hasn’t yet begun throwing to bases and continues to have no timeline on going back to playing the outfield. . . . Lefthander Ryan Yarbrough (right oblique strain) and righthanded reliever Fernando Cruz (left oblique strain) will both begin minor league rehab assignments on Thursday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.