After a dominant outing against the Angels, in which he came a few outs shy of pitching a complete game shutout, took the mound against the Twins looking to keep the momentum going. Kuroda was in for a tough assignment because the Twins’ lineup featured a number of left-handed hitters. This included healthy versions of and , who have been looking like the modern day M&M Boys in this series. The Twins countered with soft tosser and longtime National Leaguer , whose repertoire seemed tailor-made for a barrage of Bronx bombs. was scratched from the lineup due to his wrist and was given a day off, which gave a rare opportunity to face a righty starter. Fortunately for the Yankees, Jones has quite a history with Marquis, as he went 9 for 12 with 5 home runs in their earlier meetings.
Kuroda got off to a rocky start in the top of the 1st, as the Twins jumped on him for 3 straight hits, a single and 2 doubles, plating 2 runs before an out was recorded. After getting to ground out, Justin Morneau took Kuroda deep for a 2-run homer, giving the Twins a 4-0 lead. Kuroda then gave up a single to Chris Parmalee, before retiring and to escape further harm.
When a team falls into a hole early, getting a few runs back in the bottom of the inning seems to help recapture lost moment. Fortunately, the Yankees were able to do just that, scratching across 3 runs on a leadoff single by , a walk to , a double by , and a 2-run single by . However, they missed an opportunity to plate a few more runs when rapped into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded and 1 out. Given the outcome of the game, this was a big moment.
Kuroda settled down in the 2nd, but got into trouble again in the 3rd. doubled to right with 1 out, and was driven in by a Sean Burroughs single. Cano answered back in the bottom of the inning with a majestic solo home run to right, keeping it a 1-run deficit.
Kuroda cruised through the 4th on only 7 pitches, and looked to be settling down. However, Morneau victimized him again in the 5th, crushing another home run to right. Interestingly enough, Morneau has hit more home runs at Yankee Stadium III than he has in Target Field, which shows how he has killed the Yankees over the years (concussion problems and all).
After the home run, Girardi had seen enough, and called in . After walking the first batter he faced, Rapada got out of trouble, throwing 1 1/3 shutout innings against the lefty-heavy Twins lineup. He gave way to in the 7th, who walked Mauer and retired Willingham on a fly ball to center, and then struck out the dangerous Morneau and Parmelee.
The Yankees threatened in the 7th when Jeter and Teixeira singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out. However, the Yankees were unable to narrow the gap, as Cano grounded out and Swisher struck out, stranding Jeter and Tex, and leaving the Yankees in a 6-4 hole. Logan took care of business again in the 8th, striking out the first two batters, and then working around a 2-out double to keep the deficit 2 runs.
The Yankees looked to come back against closer in the 9th, as Joe Girardi sent up Alex Rodriguez to hit for . However, A-Rod was unsuccessful, grounding out to Burroughs, and passing the baton to Jeter. Jeter fell behind 0-2, but battled back to 3-2, and capped off the 10-pitch at-bat with a homer to right center. Jeter’s homer, his 4th on the season pulled the Yankees within 1, and put Curtis Granderson at the plate with the opportunity to tie the game on one swing. Capps got the best of Granderson, however, getting him to wave at an 0-2 changeup, leaving the Yankees’ fate up to Teixeira. Teixeira, who seems to have had awful luck this season, continued that streak by skying a deep fly to right that just stayed in the park. From the sound of the crowd and Michael Kay, there seemed like a good chance that the ball would leave the yard, but Teixeira, and the Yankees, fell just short.
Overall, it was a pretty poor outing for Kuroda, especially after his recent brilliant effort against the Angels. He lasted only 4 1/3 innings, giving up 6 runs on 10 hits, and striking out 4. He was working mostly in the high-80′s with his fastball and sinker, but did not have great command of either pitch. While Kuroda did a great job of working the corners against the Angels, too many of his fastballs wound up over the middle of the plate, and the aggressive Minnesota hitters took advantage. Kuroda also mixed in his splitter, curve, and slider, but none of these pitches seemed especially effective at keeping the Minnesota hitters off balance. I’m sure we’ll get a better analysis of what went wrong later this week via Pitch f/x.
It was definitely a frustrating game to watch, but there were several positives. The bullpen was pretty stellar in relief of Kuroda, especially Boone Logan, who showed the ability to retire both righty and lefty hitters. Derek Jeter had another strong game with 3 hits, while Cano, Teixeira, and Ibanez all had multi-hit games. However, they were not able to string together enough hits to make up for Kuroda’s poor outing.
The Yankees find themselves in the strange situation of being down 2-1 in a home series against the Twins. They will look to even the score tomorrow, as takes the hill seeking to improve upon his rough start to the season. Hopefully A-Rod will be back in the lineup tomorrow, as his bat was sorely missed today.
Gardner’s return will have to wait, however, since Mark Feinsand is reporting that he has been placed on the disabled list. RHP has been recalled from AAA. This is a bad break for the Yankees, and likely means that we will be seeing a lot more of Andruw Jones against righties (and hopefully not more in the outfield). A move for another outfielder like or could happen as well, though I imagine the Yankees wanted to have an extra arm for tomorrow because they didn’t get length from Kuroda today.
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Gardner going to the DL really hurts the outfield defense. Jones is adequate at either corner but I suspect this will lead to Ibanez getting a decent number of days in RF, and possibly even LF while Jones or Swisher DH. I’d really just prefer to see what Jones could do taking over LF with daily ABs.