Yankees 8, Twins 4: Well... We Got to See Mauer in Right Field!

You know when you stub your toe, hard? You let out a few cuss words and hop around, and then it feels better? Right? But then, you develop gangrene, and you have to amputate your entire foot?

That's kind of like the Twins game tonight.

Basically, this day started with Michael Cuddyer and Denard Span already disabled; followed by Jason Kubel needing to leave due to a family emergency; followed by Luke Hughes being called up in Kubel's place; followed by Luke Hughes missing his flight. Thus, Joe Mauer became the Twins' right fielder against the Yankees, with no players left on the bench.

Mauer held his own in right field--but the Twins still lost.

More after the jump.

In case you needed a reminder, the Twins have lost 20 of their past 23 games against the Yankees. The biggest problem, as it normally seems to be, is with home runs. Today, Duensing gave up a two-run home run to Mark Teixeira in the third, along with back-to-back home runs by Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones in the 5th. With the addition of Francisco Cervelli's 2 RBIs, and Brett Gardner's other RBI, the Twins became quite buried.

In the 1st inning, Justin Morneau hit--what to me, on the first-baseline, and to many others--appeared to be a home run, but the ball was ruled foul after the umpires reviewed the instant replay. Ron Gardenhire was thrown out disputing the call. Danny Gladden disputed the call over the radio. I personally disputed the call... Just going to show instant replay doesn't necessarily solve much.

Anyway, the Twins ended up losing 4 to 8 to the Yankees--Duensing with 6 earned runs over 5 innings, Capps with another 2 earned runs in the 9th inning.

Studs:

• Joe Mauer. Way to stand up and play an unknown position. Asked before the game how many times he played right field, Joe confusedly held up a hand. The last time he played outfield? "Town ball."
• Jose Mijares. The big kid pitched two scoreless innings--against the Yankees!
  
• Tsuyoshi Nishioka? This is who my Mom said she thought was a stud when I asked her while she was driving me home. He went 2 for 4 with 1 RBI. Okay, good for him. (Although I secretly think he practically made an error while I was in the bathroom. My Mom lies!)

Duds:

• Luke Hughes. Couldn't find his gate and thus missed his first flight to the Twin Cities. (Although I appreciate he found another flight and hurried down to Target Field in time to bat in the bottom of the 9th inning.)
• Matt Capps. Gave up 2 runs and only pitched 1/3 an inning.