Yankees Take Series Opener: New York 6, Minnesota 3

It was a very familiar story in Minneapolis tonight, as the New York Yankees scored early and often against the Minnesota Twins. In the first inning the Bronx Bombers made it 3-0 as a Robinson Cano ground ball scored Derek Jeter, and Nick Swisher hit his 23rd home run of the year to score Ichiro Suzuki.

There was no change in the score until the 4th inning. Curtis Granderson got ahold of a fastball from Liam Hendriks and deposited it in the right field seats.

Raul Ibanez would homer in the 6th inning, and Eric Chavez would do the same in the 7th. It was a 6-0 lead. The Twins seemed dead in the water. But, an unlikely hero would come to end the shutout, and his name was Pedro Florimon.

Florimon went down 2 strikes on the first 2 pitches, but took the next 3. The next pitch was an 87 MPH fastball, that was destroyed. The sound the ball made when it left the bat was reminiscent of the sound the ball would make when former Twin (who also wore #25) Jim Thome made when he crushed a home run.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Twins tried to make a game out of it, as Justin Morneau singled and Ryan Doumit walked. Trevor Plouffe struck out to set the stage for Chris Parmelee. He hit a first pitch cut fastball to dead center, that probably should've been caught, but Curtis Granderson isn't a good outfielder, so it went for a triple, and the Twins made it a 6-3 game.

The Twins lost today, but play New York again tomorrow! So, who knows what'll happen tomorrow! Studs and duds after the jump.

Studs: The offense. Any time you pound out 10 hits, you did something right. Especially Denard Span and Pedro Florimon who had 2 hits apiece tonight. The bullpen. Basically everyone not named "Liam Hendriks."

Duds: Liam Hendriks. He gave up all the runs tonight. All 6 of them. 5 of them off home runs.

Notes: Matt Capps pitched for the Twins today for the first time since July 16. Josh Willingham is day to day with a strained left shoulder.