The Yankees took advantage of Twins' pitchers struggles to win a laugher at the Metrodome.
CC Sabathia held the Twins to just three hits and one run over seven innings. Twins hitters made it easy on him by swinging at pitches out of the zone. Michael Cuddyer provided the lone hitting highlight with a long homer to left center.
Carlos Gomez provided the other highlight for the Twins, robbing Alex Rodriguez of a grand slam homer. But Twins pitchers walked seven Yankee hitters and it seemed like every one of those walks scored on broken-bat hits. The Yankees had 16 hits in all against Scott Baker, Brian Duensing and R. A. Dickey.
Baker had his worst start of the year, giving up five runs on nine hits over three innings. Yankee hitters worked the count with the small strike zone to force Baker to throw 86 pitches in those innings. Duensing and Dickey were not much better, combining to throw another 108 pitches. Indeed the Yankees didn't beat the Twins as much as they beat themselves.
Studs
1. Michael Cuddyer: The only Twins hitter to figure Sabathia out.
2. Carlos Gomez: As good as robbing a grand slam was, he nearly made an even better catch to rob a triple.
3. Nick Punto: He's not hitting, but at least he was patient enough to take a couple of walks. The Twins could have used more at bats like his tonight.
Duds
1. Scott Baker: Just a horrible game from the first pitch. This guy's mechanics are all messed up.
2. Brian Duensing: Faced with a tough challenge, he only threw 28 strikes out of his 53 pitches.
3. Delmon Young: Sabathia was not throwing that many strikes either. So what does Delmon do? He swings at three pitches at his shoe tops and outside and sits down. When we needed to grind out at bats, he epitomized the Twins over-anxious approach.