Carlos Correa spoils Anthony Volpe’s special night as Yankees fall to Twins

There will be bittersweet memories associated with Anthony Volpe’s first career home run Friday night. 

The young shortstop came through for his most memorable moment of the season on a night the Yankees otherwise would prefer not remembering. 

Clay Holmes flushed a one-run lead in the eighth inning, spoiling a night that had seemed destined to belong to Volpe, but ended in a 4-3 loss to the Twins in front of 41,039 in The Bronx. 

In the decisive eighth, Holmes was summoned an inning earlier than usual. Michael A.

Taylor poked a leadoff single to right before Holmes walked Byron Buxton, setting the table for the most booed player of the series. 

Carlos Correa, the hated former Astros star, who already had homered two innings prior (and Thursday night), drilled a two-run double down the right-field line to steal the lead.

Three of Minnesota’s four runs were driven in by Correa, who is playing for the Twins because he failed a pair of physicals, squelching trades to the Mets and Giants this offseason. 

The Yankees went quietly in the eighth and ninth innings, not getting a runner into scoring position and dampening a night that had begun with such promise and noise. 

Volpe, leading off in a lineup that lacked DJ LeMahieu, connected for his first career dinger on the second pitch he faced.

The first victim of the shortstop’s career was righty Louie Varland, who dotted the top of the strike zone with a 95.3-mph four-seam fastball, a pitch and location against which Volpe had struggled in the first few weeks as a major leaguer. 

This time, the 21-year-old jumped on the ball and reversed it 394 feet to left-center, clearing the fence and igniting a crowd that quickly has welcomed its shortstop of the present and future. 

Aaron Judge, the No. 2 hitter, used the only timeout of his at-bat before it began to allow for a few extra seconds of applause directed Volpe’s way.

Then, the home run champion stole the attention right back, blasting his own solo homer to right-center and putting the Twins in a 2-0 hole three pitches into Varland’s outing. 

In his 14th major league game, Volpe showed more signs that his bat is beginning to adjust to the elevated competition.

He didn’t get another hit, but also walked, and he now has a modest three-game hitting streak that has upped his average from .129 to .171. 

His homer was wasted, however, as the Yankees (8-6), who have not lost a series this year, have dropped the first two games of a four-game set. 

The Yankees were rolling until the sixth, when Correa homered to the short porch in right to bring the Twins within 2-1.

In the bottom of the inning, Giancarlo Stanton knocked his fourth homer of the season, a solo shot, to retake the two-run cushion. 

But Kyle Garlick hit a solo homer of his own against Nestor Cortes in the seventh, which brought Minnesota into striking distance — and set up Correa to strike. 

Cortes was solid through seven innings, in which he gave up two runs on five hits and struck out seven, allowing the defense behind him to help him out.

Twice, he got into trouble and twice, he danced his way out with double plays turned by infielders who previously played shortstop for the Yankees. 

In the second, Cortes allowed two Twins to reach without an out before he struck out Garlick.

The next hitter, Willi Castro, grounded sharply to third baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who made a smooth turn to Gleyber Torres at second to begin an inning-ending double play. 

The combination worked again in the fifth, after Cortes hit Castro with a pitch to start the inning.

The next hitter, Edouard Julien, grounded to Kiner-Falefa, who again started the double play and has had no issues at third base. 

Unfortunately for the Yankees, Holmes has had control issues that reappeared late.