Yankees 9, Twins 5: Bombers Sweep Minnesota as Gibson Struggles in Second Start

You can only say "this stigma against the Yankees will be over eventually" so many times. Today, the Yankee Geriatric Unit of Ichiro Suzuki, Travis Hafner, and Vernon Wells went 8-for-13 with five runs batted in. David Phelps did nice work, keeping almost everyone except Justin Morneau in check. Kyle Gibson was in trouble early and was never able to stem the tide.

On the plus side, Morneau homered twice this afternoon. It was his first multi-homer game since September, lifts his home run total for the season to six, and once again pushes his slugging percentage over .400 on the season. Like I said this morning: somebody is going to want him. And I still think it will be a smart buy for a team with a batter-friendly right field porch.

Bullet Point Highlights

• Oswaldo Arcia was moved into the three hole for the first time in his MLB career today, which is a good move in spite of the 0-for-5 results. He's raw but he's talented. I hope to see Gardy continue with this experiment.
• Speaking of which, Arcia had one of those games where he just didn't look good in the field. Let's just leave it there.
• Gibson didn't get any help from Brian Duensing who, while he did inherit a pair of Kyle's base runners, allowed them to score on the first batter he faced.
• In the top of the sixth the Twins were already down 6-1, and with no outs and runners on the corners Brian Dozier played a risk on a chopper up the middle. Instead of turning two he threw home after playing the short hop, and Joe Mauer situated himself well and was able to make a great swipe tag on Luis Cruz to keep the Yankees off the board for at least one batter.
• Aaron Hicks picked up two more hits today, and is now 4-for-11 with a walk in three games since his return.

Studs

Justin Morneau
Aaron Hicks

Duds

Kyle Gibson
Brian Duensing
Joe Mauer
Oswaldo Arcia