Some positives for the Yankees' offense in series win over Twins

PHILADELPHIA — The Yankees' just-completed series against the Twins — insert the Bronx Bombers' personal-punching-bag-since-2002 quips at your leisure — was a baseball Rorschach test of sorts.

In taking two of three from American League Central cellar-dwelling Minnesota, a Yankees offense that has slumbered most of the year produced their best series performance of the season.

Despite Aroldis Chapman’s stunning ninth-inning collapse in Thursday night’s 7-5 loss, when the closer did not record an out in allowing a pair of two-run homers to deny his club a sweep, the Yankees tallied 22 runs and 41 hits in the three games.

The Yankees hit .342 in the series with a .989 OPS, raising their season batting average to .235 from .228 and season OPS to .704 from .686.

Scoff at the Twins if you must — the Yankees' record against them since 2002, including the postseason, is an almost impossible to comprehend 105-38 — but a team can only play the given schedule.

Minnesota was next up, and the Yankees, staggering after having lost four straight — including an ugly sweep at the hands of the Red Sox — recovered to do what they almost always do against the Twins.

Additionally, there have been individual signs of the lineup coming to life, which started before the series.

Gleyber Torres, for instance, is 12-for-31 with one homer, two doubles, four RBIs and a .977 OPS in his last eight games.

Giancarlo Stanton, after a rough stretch following his activation from the injured list May 28, is 8-for-26 with three homers, a double, eight RBIs and a 1.049 OPS in his last eight games. Gary Sanchez, whose season average rested comfortably below .200 much of the first two months, has regained his starting catcher job — other than when Gerrit Cole pitches, in which case it’s his personal catcher, Kyle Higashioka — in large part because of a recent offensive surge in which he has hit 13-for-38 with two homers, three doubles, six RBIs and a .998 OPS in his previous 12 games.

DJ LeMahieu’s subpar season has continued — he enters the weekend hitting .254 with a .653 OPS — but the infielder has shown some modest indications of getting things going, collecting two hits in two of the three games against the Twins.

"We feed off of each other," Stanton said. "So you see a couple of guys have good at-bats, you see what the pitcher is trying to do to them, and you go in there and you do the same."

The but-on-the-other-hand element of the series?

See above.

It was against Minnesota, a team that, even when it has had good clubs in the last 20 years, more or less lay down at the sight of the Yankees, home or away.

And the fact is the Yankees should have swept the Twins, who were let off the hook and not just by Chapman. The Yankees' 12 hits Thursday should have produced more than five runs, but they went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight, a season-long plague for the offense. It also was the continuation of a season-long trend of failing to close out a series; with the loss the Yankees fell to 6-14 in a series finale this season.

"There's definitely been those series where we've had a chance to really put it away, and we just haven't had that game," manager Aaron Boone said. "But I try and look at this game we just played and look at the quality of the at-bats and some of the offensive momentum guys are starting to build . . . We've got to build on that. This is different than some of those series where we've had a chance to finish off a team and just haven't been able to."

Just how different is yet to be determined.