Luke Voit declared his case passionate about regular play time with his mouth earlier this week.
Now his bat speaks even louder.
Voit elicited a deep breath in a rare Yankees laugh Friday night, going 4 for 5 with four RBIs and dropping a triple short of the cycle on the way to a 10-2 victory over the Twins in the Bronx.
The Yankees extended the streak of wins in the high season to eight games, but this one was different from the others, as there was no elimination from the last inning. It was the first time in 13 wins that they won a game in more than three races.
Nestor Cortes Jr., with a 4-0 lead after the first inning, threw seven strong ball innings in two runs to send the Yankees to their twentieth win in their last 25 games
After his big night, Voit has beaten 11 against 21 (.524) with three homers and 11 passing runs in his last six games. It’s the hottest stretch of his injury season and comes at a time when he’s struggling to play time after the Yankees switched to Anthony Rizzo during Voit’s final stage on the injured roster.
On Tuesday, on the eve of the first two bases being on the active roster at the same time, Voit claimed constant playing time.
“I’m not going to go down,” Voit said. “I want to play and I deserve to play as much as I can [Rizzo] does “.
Voit was left out of Wednesday’s game when Rizzo returned from COVID-19 IL, but served as DH on Thursday and then started on Friday at first base, with Rizzo spending the night off.
The 2020 home run champion got the Yankees into the first inning with a little help from Twins starter Charlie Barnes, who threw two outings and hit a batter to load the bases. Voit came on and kicked off a two-run single to make it 2-0.
An out and a single from Gary Sánchez later, Andrew Velazquez walked with the bases loaded to force on another run. Brett Gardner put the ball away for 4 – 0 after an attack from the left set him up unmarked in front of the keeper.
The Yankees completed their lead in the second inning of the day from Aaron Judge, who carried on the right field, who rushed out to make it 6-0.
Meanwhile, Cortés did not give up success until the fourth inning, when the Twins loaded the bases with two starts. But Cortés got out of the jam, getting Willians Astudillo flying to finish the entry.
Voit came back into the fourth inning, punching an RBI base rule double in the center left field to make it 7-0.
Josh Donaldson, the target of big boos in his first two games in the Bronx since he called on Gerrit Cole for his slow turnaround shortly after MLB’s crackdown on sticky things, got the twins to stay in the board with a two-run homer on the sixth.
But Voit added a solo home run in the seventh before LeMahieu hit a two-run homer in the eighth.