MINNEAPOLIS — The Yankees are desperately looking for a hitting hero to carry them down the stretch.
It’s gotten so bad that on Wednesday night at Target Field, they were desperately looking for one measly hit.
Right-hander Jake Odorizzi did not give up a hit until one out in the eighth inning in the Twins’ 3-1 win over the Yankees. That’s when Greg Bird lashed a run-scoring double to left-center to score Luke Voit, who had walked.
Odorizzi came into the night having lost three straight and averaging five innings a start over his first 29 outings.
Consider this the ultimate wake-up call for the Yankees, who saw their lead to host the wild-card game shrink to one with the A’s 10-0 win over the Orioles. A 3,000-mile jaunt to the West Coast to start the postseason would have dire consequences.
“I thought he was locating the fastball at the top of the zone there,’’ Bird said of Odorizzi, who recently had a talk with Hall of Fame pitcher Jack Morris, a Twins broadcaster, on the art of pitching.
“If we want to get where we want to go, you have to bounce back from these things.”
A hot streak from Giancarlo Stanton would work wonders.
Heading into Wednesday, over Stanton’s previous 10 games, he had zero home runs and four hits in 38 ABs, two RBIs and posted a .370 OPS with 19 strikeouts. Over these same 10 games last year with Miami — games Nos. 134 through 143 — Stanton produced two home runs and two RBIs in 37 at-bats with a .662 OPS and 10 Ks.
Stanton went 0-for-3 with a walk Wednesday, and after a fourth-inning strikeout, he angrily threw his bat to the ground. Miguel Andujar picked up the Yankees’ second hit, a single in the ninth off reliever Trevor Hildenberger. Stanton then lined a rocket right at right fielder Max Kepler for the second out.
It was that kind of night.
The big man has been down this road before this time of the year. No one cared last year. This year, as a Yankee, all eyes are on Stanton, especially with Aaron Judge still out.
Last year, from Game 144 to the end of the season, a period of 18 games, Stanton batted .282 with a .366 on-base percentage and .535 slugging percentage, a .901 OPS with five home runs, three doubles and 19 RBIs.
He got hot. The Yankees could use that kind of production now.
As for his slump, Stanton told The Post before the game, “Get rid of it now. I’d rather it be now than in two weeks. I’m close, it’s just a question of timing.’’
After the loss, he said of the team, “I felt we had good at-bats. What can you do? We hit the ball hard. We know what’s at stake, we know what we need to do.’’
The Yankees went 4-5 on this trip and return home Friday to play the Blue Jays.
“Get to Friday and get it done,’’ Stanton said.
Scouts note that pitchers have been busting Stanton inside, especially early in a series, and then working him away with breaking stuff.
“Timing is a little off,” Aaron Boone said of his slumping slugger. “You know with him he is always close. He and [hitting coaches] Marcus [Thames] and PJ [Pilittere] have kind of identified some things they really want to work on, small little adjustments that will hopefully allow him to get into that good place that he was in really for a couple of months when he was in a lot of ways carrying what we were doing offensively.’’
Stanton owns 33 home runs and 31 doubles, the first Yankee to reach those numbers since Robinson Cano in 2012.
“Giancarlo, throughout his career, has had those times when he gets hot he is the best player in the league,’’ Boone said. “Hopefully, we get him into a good place these final two weeks and heading into October.’’
With the A’s rolling, there is no margin for error. The Yankees need a hitting hero.
As Stanton said, get to Friday and get it done.