To say that the Minnesota Twins haven't had a great deal of success against the New York Yankees in the Ron Gardenhire era would be a severe understatement. Going into tonight's game in the Bronx, the Twins had compiled a record of 18-58 in 76 games against New York since Gardy took over, and in nine years they've never won a series in New York.
Tonight looked like it was going to be more of the same, but the Twins persevered, and got a rare victory over the Yankees in New York by a score of 5-4 in ten innings.
The Bronx Bombers jumped on Twins' starter Brian Duensing early, with Mark Teixeira launching a three-run home run in the first inning to stake C.C. Sabathia to a 3-run lead. (Insert joke about Sabathia and steak here.) When Andruw Jones added to the Yankee lead with a solo home run with one out in the second, it looked like the Yankees were on their way to a rout. After the first two innings, Duensing had allowed four runs on four hits, and had walked a hitter.
However, that was all the Yankees would get, as they generated just two more hits the rest of the way, and didn't get any hits after the sixth inning.
The Twins did most of their damage in the top of the eighth, as Danny Valencia drew a walk from Rafael Soriano to start off the inning. After pinch-hitter Justin Morneau lined out to right field, Jim Thome drew a walk in a pinch-hitting role, and Denard Span singled to left to load the bases. After Tsuyoshi Nishioka struck out looking, Joe Mauer drew yet another walk to bring Valencia home and cut the deficit to 4-1. Delmon Young followed that up with a bloop double off of David Robertson, clearing the bases and tying the score at four.
From there, we went to the tenth inning. Boone Logan walked Span to start things off, and Nishioka's single sent Span to third. Mauer then laced a single to right field to score Span, and the Twins took a 5-4 lead. Joe Nathan came on and pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the tenth for his second save and a Twins' victory.
Matt Capps got the win for Minnesota, pitching a perfect eighth and ninth inning for the victory. Logan took the loss for the Yankees.
The series continues tomorrow from Yankee Stadium at 6:05 PM Central time, as Carl Pavano will make his second start of the year, locking up with the Yankees' Freddy Garcia.