In two series against the Twins this year, we’ve been nothing short of perfect. Games have been extremely close, but each time, someone in pinstripes has stepped up in order to give us the edge. Last night, we barely got by. In fact, we were lucky to come out with a victory. But when a clutch hit or inning of relief was neccesary, guys like Alex Rodriguez and Phillip Hughes took advantage of it, icreasing our season record versus the Twins from 5-0 to 6-0.
A.J Burnett’s fastball was wild and somewhat ineffective, but he found a way to sit the hitters down, and gave us a solid 6 1/3 innings. He later called his outing “a metal grind”, after throwing a season-high three wild pitches. But in the bottom of the fifth, A.J showed poise and determination while striking out Michael Cuddyer with the bases juiced. After this run production failure, the Twins couldn’t muster up another rally for the remainder of the game. In baseball, you might only get one chance to succeed. Minnesota passed up this opportunity, which eventually cost them the game.
After annihilating a Phil Coke offering in the 7th, Joe Mauer had one more shot to be the hero for his home-town club. But this time, Mariano Rivera got the best of him, forcing a line-out to Derek Jeter. This gave Mo his 503 career save and 22nd of the season.
Our Boys in Blue look to sweep the season series and continue their push for a lead atop the AL East today at 1:10 in their final meeting at the Metrodome. Alredo Aceves is taking on the once-superb Francisco Liriano on a beautitful sunny day in Minny. Hopefully we can say goodbye to the Dome in appopriate Yankee fashion, by sweeping our final series in its confines.
That’s all for now.
Update 2:33 p.m: Yankees winning 5-2. We’re laying a beatdown on Liriano. Ransom even had an RBI. Men on 1st and 3rd for the Twins. Ace needs to get out of this jam with minimal damage.
Update 4:04 p.m: Yankees winning 6-4. Hughes is throwing right now with one out in the eight. Texiera hit a homerun after Robertson walked in two runs. Aceves was somewhat disappointing, but not terrible in his 3.1 innings of work. Ahh, Hughes just struck the 2nd batter out, now there’s two down.
