The tug of war to stay over .500 marches on.
Darrell Rasner gave up four runs in an outing for the first time this season, Michael Cuddyer drove in three and four Twinkie pitchers combined to short circuit the pinstriped attack as the
Twins dumped the Yanks 5-1 at the Metrodome. Twins starter Nick Blackburn was knocked out in the fifth when Bobby Abreu lined a single off the side of his face. Blackburn went down, but walked off under his own power. The Bombers managed only three more hits the rest of the afternoon.
The Good:Derek Jeter. The Captain has been struggling lately (5 for his last 44 heading into Sunday's game), but he was the offense for the Yanks. Jeter smacked his third homer of the year in the fifth for the Bombers' only run. It's been a tough season so far for DJ (strained quad, hand shot a few weeks ago, assorted bumps and bruises), but maybe his solid afternoon will get him going. Jeter finished 1 for 2 with 2 walks, a run scored and an RBI.
The Bad:Hideki Matsui. I feel terrible placing Godzilla in this category since he's been hitting so well, but the big fella had two chances to get the Yanks on the board and couldn't get it done. Matsui flew out with runners on first and second in the first inning and then grounded out with the bases loaded in the third. In fairness, both of those opportunities came with two outs, but Matsui is usually money in the clutch. Matsui also made the final out of the inning in every one of his at-bats Sunday afternoon. Strange. Matsui finished 0 for 4 and left 6 runners on base.
The Ugly:Heads! It was a scary moment, but it could have been far, far worse.
Abreu's liner off Blackburn's face silenced the Minnesota faithful and shook up the Yankee right fielder. The Twins starter managed to deflect the ball with his glove before impact so it didn't hit him square in the face. Blackburn never lost consciousness and was escorted off the field with a towel to his bloody nose. As of this post, Blackburn suffered no broken bones or lost teeth and is listed as day-to-day with a bruised nose and upper lip. It's really amazing that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often.
The Bombers made a roster move before the ballgame and
Morgan Ensberg was finally sent packing. The Yanks brought up righty reliever Scott Patterson from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and designated Ensberg for assignment. Patterson almost made the team out of spring training and jumped right into the pool on Sunday, giving up one run in 1 1/3 innings. The 28-year-old Patterson went 1-0 with a 3.04 ERA and three saves in 22 appearances in Scranton.
Ensberg hasn't seen a lot of action lately and became expendable once Wilson Betemit came back from the disabled list. To me, Betemit and Ensberg are almost the same type of player, but Betemit can play all infield positions and is a switch-hitter (even though he's terrible from the right-side) so he gets to keep his locker. Ensberg's fate was sealed when the Yanks announced they plan to keep three catchers once
Jorge Posada comes off the DL this week. The demotion of Shelley Duncan is probably not far behind.
Andy Pettitte (5-5, 4.11 ERA) will try and give the Yanks three out of four in Minnesota on Monday night. The Twins will go for the split with Livan Hernandez (6-2, 4.60 ERA). Hernandez gives up a ton of hits (103 in 76 1/3 innings this season), but he usually goes deep into games and knows how to win. He's gone into the sixth in all but one of his starts this year. Hernandez is 0-3 in four career starts against the Yanks with a 6.08 ERA. Pettitte has ripped off two wins in a row and seems to have turned the corner after a handful of rough outings. Andy is 8-5 with a 3.52 ERA in 17 career starts against Minnesota and is 5-4 with a 3.48 ERA in 11 starts at the Metrodome.
The climb for a .500 record resumes.
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