NEW YORK — Yankee Stadium has been a house of horrors for the Twins in the recent past. A spell of rain that disrupted Thursday night’s game for nearly an hour in the sixth inning forced the Twins to be trapped there even longer.

At least the good news for the Twins after a prolonged night at the ballpark is that they’re done with the New York Yankees in the 2024 regular season.

And the bad news?

They lost all six games they played against New York, falling on Thursday 8-5 to the Yankees on a day where starter Pablo López was uncharacteristically out of the strike zone.

“I think it was just lack of feel for everything,” the starter said. “ … I just kept getting in a deeper hole, inning after inning. That’s exactly what I should not be doing.”

López walked six Yankees (45-19), the most in a single game in his career. The two batters he walked in the first inning didn’t hurt him. The other four certainly did, all coming around to score.

He began his third inning of work by issuing walks to Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Two scored when Gleyber Torres sent a single to right and the third scored on a sacrifice fly, turning a tied game into a three-run deficit.

“I’ve had games this season I walk away and I’m like, ‘Man, I wonder what could have been different today?’ It’s pretty obvious. Six walks. Hit by pitch,” López said. “That’s seven free passes right there against a lineup as good as this one. You’re just giving them fuel.”

An inning earlier, it was a pitch left in the heart of the zone that hurt him: Trent Grisham hammered a first-pitch fastball for a two-run blast.

All told, Lopez gave up seven runs. It marked the third game in his last four in which he has given up at least six runs. Two of those starts have seen him give up seven runs.

“It was really all about the command. It’s not like they hit the ball around the ballpark on him,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It was just when there’s that many baserunners out there, guys are going to score. They almost have to score.”

While the Twins (33-29) tried to claw their way back, they were never able to pull even after the third inning.
Carlos Correa and Christian Vázquez homered in the loss, a positive sign for the catcher who has had a difficult time of it at the plate but now has extra-base hits in each of his past two games.

Three more runs scored in the fifth inning, including one on a ball that Max Kepler hit to left that Judge seemed to give up on as he got closer to the wall. But though the Twins brought the tying run to the plate in both the sixth and eighth innings, they were unable to convert on either opportunity, sending them away from their perennial tormentors winless.

“Six games and you lose all six, that’s not easy to swallow,” Baldelli said. “You’re not going to take a lot of positives about it and feel good about almost anything.”

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NORTH MANKATO – Carter Raymond was as good as advertised in Thursday’s Class 2A semifinals.

The junior tossed a complete-game, one-hit shutout while striking out 11 batters. And yet the game was still a sweat to the final out – because St. Agnes’ star hurler was equally dominant.

Angela Proper allowed just four hits while striking out 13 batters for fifth-seeded St. Agnes, which fell 1-0 to the Randolph Rockets at Caswell Park.

Randolph will meet second-seeded Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial at 2 p.m. Friday in the state title game.

The Rockets have been more battle-tested at state than they’ve been for much of the year. Randolph’s only loss of the campaign came in the section finals to Caledonia. That, Raymond said, may have been a blessing in disguise.

“It definitely took some stress off me, personally,” she said. “It’s kind of like a breath of relief, because yeah, we’re beatable. But we showed how we can come back after a loss.”

And it showed the Rockets (26-1) can take a punch and bounce back. That was required Thursday, because Proper was landing one blow after another. The semifinal marked the only time all season Randolph was held to fewer than two runs.

“I know my abilities, and I knew a little bit of theirs. It was going to be a battle going in. I knew it was going to be close. The other pitcher, she did just an amazing job, but I knew we were close in abilities,” Proper said. “Just taking it one pitch at a time, trusting my team, really.”

St. Agnes stayed error-free throughout the contest. Proper lauded her squad’s fielding countless times, noting how proud she was of all of her teammates.

“This is my favorite team I think I’ve ever played on, because everyone has spirit. Everyone is confident in each other,” Proper said. “When I can trust my defense as a pitcher, it just makes life so much easier. Because I’m not afraid to go throw those risky strikes, because I know the defense will pick me up.”

Randolph’s lone run came in the top of the third, when Ella Banks came through with an RBI single. That was the Rockets’ only breakthrough, as Proper escaped a pair of bases-loaded jams.

St. Agnes (23-3) had a couple opportunities, as well. Twice the Aggies ended the inning with runners in scoring position, including in the seventh, when they opened the frame with their lone hit – a single through the left side from – who else – Proper, who then stole second, where she was stranded as Raymond ended the contest with a pair of strikeouts.

“We did have some chances, but they’re just very, very, very hard to generate against a pitcher like that,” St. Agnes coach Dan Berthiaume said. “I’ll give them credit – they strung two hits together, and that’s kind of what it takes in a game like this. … If you can hit a double with a runner on base, that can be the game right there. We were a double away from tying the game up, or maybe winning it.”

St. Agnes also reached the semifinals a year ago, but this trip feels different. Because the Aggies were dominant in their quarterfinal win over Proctor, and they went toe to toe Thursday against the tournament’s top seed. Berthiaume feels good that positive steps continue to be made. St. Agnes’ softball program is in excellent shape, and it has a lot to do with who’s in the circle. The coach said Proper has been “transformational” for the program.

“She’s so good. She’s just a very, very complete player,” Berthiaume said. “Beyond all of that, she’s just a gamer. Every time that she hits the field, you know you’re going to get 100 percent effort. You’re going to get that sort of gritty, tough approach to a game. The high-pressure stuff, it’s never easy to be in that spot, but she deals with it as well as any sophomore can possibly do that. I just couldn’t say enough good things about Angela.”

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Robert Mechura and Eddie Snider completed rare doubles on Thursday.

Eight months after Mechura, a Roseville junior, won the Class 3A state cross country title and Snider, a Mounds Park Academy junior, won the Class A state cross country championship, both won the 3,200-meter state crowns at their respective track and field meets at St. Michael-Albertville High School.

Mechura’s time of 9 minutes, 6.85 seconds was more than 12 seconds better than Chaska’s Nolan Sutter, who placed second.

Snider’s race was far closer. He won with a time of 9 minutes, 31.95 seconds — just five hundredths ahead of Cotter’s Erik Semling.

LEWIS TAKES TWO TITLES

Math and Science Academy’s McKaylen Lewis won the Class A girls long jump by nearly two feet with a leap of 19 feet, 9 inches, the best jump in Minnesota this season.

That was one of two titles she won Thursday, the other coming in the high jump, where she cleared 5 feet, 5 inches to win the event by two inches.

OTHER RESULTS

-Forest Lake sophomore Alexis Fahey smashed the competition in the Class 3A girls discus, winning the state title with a throw of 154 feet, 11 inches — more than 20 feet better than her nearest competition.

-St. Croix Prep’s Joseph Arens won the Class A boys pole vault at a height of 14 feet, 3 inches, which was also cleared by Montevideo’s Braden Nelson.

-Cora Clough of Brainerd won the Class 3A girls high jump as four jumpers — including Stillwater’s Anya Williams — cleared 5 feet, 4 inches.

– Shakopee sophomore Samantha Carr won the Class 3A girls long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 8.75 inches — 3.25 inches clear of Roseville’s Jayda Wilson, who placed second.

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NEW YORK — When Byron Buxton saw Royce Lewis take off for second base in his first rehab game after missing two months because of a quadriceps strain, everything started clicking into place for him. He finally realized the concern the Twins had had watching him over the years.

This is a 2023 photo of shortstop Royce Lewis of the Twins baseball team. This image reflects the Twins active roster as of Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, in Fort Myers, Fla., when this image was taken. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

“I was like, ‘Damn,’ ” Buxton said. “That literally was like me all over again. … It put it in perspective of how they felt when I was doing something of that nature.”

But Buxton knows just as well how hard it is, as a competitor, to slow things down, even if it is in the name of self-preservation. It was something he had to learn — and something the Twins are hoping to impart into Lewis as well.

Lewis had a scheduled day off on Thursday after playing in the first two games of the Yankees series. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said in his first week to 10 days back, Lewis would have two or three days off where he was not starting.

“At some point, it’ll be based on how he’s just recovering and what he’s saying. But the first week especially, we’re going to keep an eye on him,” Baldelli said.

Lewis has shown star power when he has been on the field. But the beginning of his career has been disrupted by multiple injuries. Now that he’s healthy, it’s a matter of doing everything they can to keep him on the field.

Baldelli called Lewis after he stole that base last month, incredulous at what he had seen.

“I was just playing the game I’ve always played. That’s just who I am. I play hard,” Lewis said. “When I came into the dugout, (Saints manager) Toby (Gardenhire) and guys were looking at me. Even my teammates. I was like, ‘I probably did something wrong.’ ”

But perhaps the message has gotten through to Lewis, who seemed to slow himself down running to first base on Wednesday on ground balls that he did not have a chance of beating out.

“I think he stayed under control (Wednesday) when he hit those groundballs, and that’s the way that we would like to keep it right now,” Baldelli said. “We’re not going to take his ability to play the game away. He’s still going to be out there doing his thin. But when you watch baseball over 162 games and a long six months, there are times where you’re going to cut it loose, and there are times where you’re still going to go hard but maybe you’re not cutting it loose.”

And while Lewis pledged that “Royce is going to play like Royce,” on Tuesday upon his return, there’s one thing that might slow him down — something he has done in each of his first two games since returning from the injured list.

“When he hits the ball over the fence, it’s not a sprint,” catcher Ryan Jeffers pointed out.

Briefly

The Twins will head to Pittsburgh this weekend to take on the Pirates. Friday night’s game, which will be started by Joe Ryan, will air on Apple TV. Simeon Woods Richardson and Bailey Ober are also in line to start games at PNC Park.