The Minnesota Twins are one of the Yankees favorite baseball teams to see on their schedule with a long list of success going back to 2002, and a trip to the new spacious ballpark out in the Twin Cities in late September to build up some wins against the Orioles was at a perfect time. Though the Yanks, as the road team, stayed on par by taking two out of three games, they'll (specifically Girardi) be kicking themselves for letting the middle game slip away if it indeed causes them to fall out of the 2012 AL East or Wild Card picture.
Veteran Andy Pettitte was on the hill for the opening game as he made his second tune-up start off the DL as he tries to keep building his stamina back up. Opposing him was Liam Hendricks, with only one career win as a starter to his credit, and the Yankee bats made the world see why with three runs in the top of the 1st to give Pettitte some room to work with. After an RBI ground out by Cano, Nick Swisher blasted a 2-run homer way into the second level in right-center. Pettitte wasn't sharp early and found himself in a jam of his own in the bottom of that first inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Pettitte got gritty as usual and struck out Justin Morneau on a called third strike on the outside corner, then got Ryan Doumit for an easy ground out to short. That's about as close as the Twins got all night from doing any damage against Pettitte and the Yankee bats put the game away with more homers; Granderson's 40th in the 4th, Ibanez in the 7th, and Eric Chavez in the 7th as well for a 6-0 Yankees lead. Pettitte was able to go 6 innings this time around and didn't give up any runs. Cory Wade spoiled the shutout by allowing a solo homer in the 8th and the Twins scratched two more runs across in the 9th off of a sloppy Justin Thomas and David Robertson, but Robertson was able to finish them off at a 6-3 final score without having to use Soriano (with his dead arm issue).
Phil Hughes was on for the second game and looked prime to win his 17th of the year, but a questionable managerial move and poor relief work by Boone Logan turned it into Hughes' 13th loss. The Yankees gave Hughes a 2-run lead in the 4th when Nick Swisher, who hit a 2-run homer the night before, hit another double-score shot to right that gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead on Esmerling Vasquez. Although Hughes surrendered a run in the bottom of the 4th, the Yankees righty was looking strong for most entire night and received another run from a Russell Martin solo jack in the top of the 7th. At 3-1 in the bottom of the 7th is where things started to home apart for Hughes. He gave up a single to Doumit to start the inning, followed by a walk, so there were two runners on with no outs. Hughes got the next hitter to pop out for the first out, but Jamey Carroll hit a weak ball to short Jeter couldn't make a play on and the bases were now loaded. Hughes kept his composure to strike the next batter out, but when the lefty-hitting Dernard Span due up next with two outs, manager Joe Girardi decided Hughes' night was done and called for the lefty Boone Logan to go after Span. Despite the fact Hughes was only at 99 pitches with the score 3-1, had pitched well all night, and was getting outs with runners on the bags in that inning, Girardi didn't cut him the slack he probably would with a more veteran pitcher and yanked him off the mound.
The move totally backfired and Logan first let in a run from a wild pitch, and then from there was cuffed around from a Span RBI double and then a RBI Mauer single, both lefty hitters. Instead of being up 3-1, the Yanks were now down 5-3. Glen Perkins, the Twins closer at the moment, came on in the 9th to close it out and the hard throwing lefty was able to breeze through the first two outs. Girardi made one good call on the night and pitch-hitted Andruw Jones and the mightily-struggling former superstar cracked a solo homer to bring the Yankees within one run at 5-4, but the next hitter Jayson Nix struck out to end the affair and the Yankees had to swallow a tough loss. Had they won, with the Orioles losing that night, the Yanks would've had a huge 2.5 lead in the AL East, but instead had to stay at the 1.5 mark.
With the final game becoming a must win for the Bombers as they couldn't afford to lose out against a lesser opponent within the crunch time of the division race, (the good) CC Sabathia stepped up for his second straight start to get the team out of Minnesota with the series win. Samuel Deduno started for the Twins, but was lifted in favor of (the joke) Brian Duensing after Deduno experienced an eye irritation issue inthe middle of the 2nd inning. The Twins had a 1-0 lead in the top of the 3rd, but then after Chris Stewart grounded out, the Yankees went on a 6-run barrage filled with bases loaded doubles, a single, a triple, even a wild pitch. Sabathia locked in from there and would eventually go 8 inning for his 14th win and get 10 strikeouts. The Twins poked another run in the bottom of the 8th off of the Yankees ace, but overall the big man was as dominating as he was last week against the A's. Chris Dickerson added a solo homerun in the top of that inning and later on Brett Gardner finally made an appearance as a outfield replacement when months ago it was said his 2012 was done due to that mysterious elbow/shoulder injury he had that was never healing. The Yanks walked out 8-2 winners and it was the Yanks 90th win of the season.
The 90-65 Yankees still hold onto the AL Easy by a nose and try to reap the benefits of their late September schedule with a visit up to Toronto for four against the Blue Jays....
Veteran Andy Pettitte was on the hill for the opening game as he made his second tune-up start off the DL as he tries to keep building his stamina back up. Opposing him was Liam Hendricks, with only one career win as a starter to his credit, and the Yankee bats made the world see why with three runs in the top of the 1st to give Pettitte some room to work with. After an RBI ground out by Cano, Nick Swisher blasted a 2-run homer way into the second level in right-center. Pettitte wasn't sharp early and found himself in a jam of his own in the bottom of that first inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Pettitte got gritty as usual and struck out Justin Morneau on a called third strike on the outside corner, then got Ryan Doumit for an easy ground out to short. That's about as close as the Twins got all night from doing any damage against Pettitte and the Yankee bats put the game away with more homers; Granderson's 40th in the 4th, Ibanez in the 7th, and Eric Chavez in the 7th as well for a 6-0 Yankees lead. Pettitte was able to go 6 innings this time around and didn't give up any runs. Cory Wade spoiled the shutout by allowing a solo homer in the 8th and the Twins scratched two more runs across in the 9th off of a sloppy Justin Thomas and David Robertson, but Robertson was able to finish them off at a 6-3 final score without having to use Soriano (with his dead arm issue).
Phil Hughes was on for the second game and looked prime to win his 17th of the year, but a questionable managerial move and poor relief work by Boone Logan turned it into Hughes' 13th loss. The Yankees gave Hughes a 2-run lead in the 4th when Nick Swisher, who hit a 2-run homer the night before, hit another double-score shot to right that gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead on Esmerling Vasquez. Although Hughes surrendered a run in the bottom of the 4th, the Yankees righty was looking strong for most entire night and received another run from a Russell Martin solo jack in the top of the 7th. At 3-1 in the bottom of the 7th is where things started to home apart for Hughes. He gave up a single to Doumit to start the inning, followed by a walk, so there were two runners on with no outs. Hughes got the next hitter to pop out for the first out, but Jamey Carroll hit a weak ball to short Jeter couldn't make a play on and the bases were now loaded. Hughes kept his composure to strike the next batter out, but when the lefty-hitting Dernard Span due up next with two outs, manager Joe Girardi decided Hughes' night was done and called for the lefty Boone Logan to go after Span. Despite the fact Hughes was only at 99 pitches with the score 3-1, had pitched well all night, and was getting outs with runners on the bags in that inning, Girardi didn't cut him the slack he probably would with a more veteran pitcher and yanked him off the mound.
The move totally backfired and Logan first let in a run from a wild pitch, and then from there was cuffed around from a Span RBI double and then a RBI Mauer single, both lefty hitters. Instead of being up 3-1, the Yanks were now down 5-3. Glen Perkins, the Twins closer at the moment, came on in the 9th to close it out and the hard throwing lefty was able to breeze through the first two outs. Girardi made one good call on the night and pitch-hitted Andruw Jones and the mightily-struggling former superstar cracked a solo homer to bring the Yankees within one run at 5-4, but the next hitter Jayson Nix struck out to end the affair and the Yankees had to swallow a tough loss. Had they won, with the Orioles losing that night, the Yanks would've had a huge 2.5 lead in the AL East, but instead had to stay at the 1.5 mark.
With the final game becoming a must win for the Bombers as they couldn't afford to lose out against a lesser opponent within the crunch time of the division race, (the good) CC Sabathia stepped up for his second straight start to get the team out of Minnesota with the series win. Samuel Deduno started for the Twins, but was lifted in favor of (the joke) Brian Duensing after Deduno experienced an eye irritation issue inthe middle of the 2nd inning. The Twins had a 1-0 lead in the top of the 3rd, but then after Chris Stewart grounded out, the Yankees went on a 6-run barrage filled with bases loaded doubles, a single, a triple, even a wild pitch. Sabathia locked in from there and would eventually go 8 inning for his 14th win and get 10 strikeouts. The Twins poked another run in the bottom of the 8th off of the Yankees ace, but overall the big man was as dominating as he was last week against the A's. Chris Dickerson added a solo homerun in the top of that inning and later on Brett Gardner finally made an appearance as a outfield replacement when months ago it was said his 2012 was done due to that mysterious elbow/shoulder injury he had that was never healing. The Yanks walked out 8-2 winners and it was the Yanks 90th win of the season.
The 90-65 Yankees still hold onto the AL Easy by a nose and try to reap the benefits of their late September schedule with a visit up to Toronto for four against the Blue Jays....
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