Yankees 3, Twins 1: Tanaka stays strong as he owns Minnesota

I had my head in my hands by by the bottom of the first. Yes, the Twins had Brian Dozier standing on third with one away in the top half of the frame. Josh Willingham drove him in after Joe Mauer (who looked terrible) struck out on a sinker. But even with the 1-0 lead, Kevin Correia could not have dug himself out of any deeper of a hole in the bottom of that first inning.

After all the fun that was had last night over that truly awful scouting report on Derek Jeter, the Yankee Captain doubled off the wall in left field - on a ball that really cracked off the bat, by the way - and put runners on second and third to start the Bomber first. Correia couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat and walked Jacoby Ellsbury.

Imagine walking out of the room in that moment. And then coming back in a few minutes later and seeing a zero in the home team's scoring column. That's what happened to me. I still can't decide if I left because I just couldn't watch Correia implode against a sub-standard Yankee offense, or if I actually had something better to do, but that's what happened. Apparently Brian McCann of the Fun Police rolled into a double play.

Correia had that luck all afternoon. With two runners on in the second, Brendan Ryan rolled into a double play to end the inning. Yangervis Solarte was out trying to take second as the Twins stopped McCann from scoring in the fifth. But somehow Correia walked away allowing just one run in six innings - the solo homer from Solarte.

Masahiro Tanaka, by contrast, was rough early before cruising to a win. Dozier reached thanks to an error in consecutive plate appearances, and in the third inning he and Eduardo Escobar stood in scoring position with nobody out. But Mauer struck out swinging again, Willingham lined out, and Oswaldo Arcia was caught looking at a fastball. Tanaka would walk Trevor Plouffe to lead off the fourth, but after that faced the minimum through eight innings. He struck out nine.

The Yankees broke the tie in the eighth. Brian Duensing came out for his second inning of work, and after retiring Jeter walked Ellsbury and Brian Roberts back-to-back before McCann doubled and gave New York the lead. Jared Burton relieved Duensing and after getting the first out got the grounder he needed, but Dozier had to move too far to his left to make any play except stop the ball from moving to the outfield. In truth he probably kept it a one-run play, but it did bring us to our final score.

Notes

• Joe Mauer was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. Are there lingering effects of last year's concussion? Because he's playing worse than when he had bi-lateral leg weakness - whatever that is.
• Remember when the Twins offense was having success by taking walks and sometimes driving runners in? They drew two walks today, and were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
• Eduardo Escobar is playing like he deserves that everyday shortstop job. Two hits on the afternoon have him batting .328/.362/.479 on the season, and he made a couple of nice plays today - including one in the eighth inning that used to be a Jeter Signature...the athletic throw to first from deep in the hole. Except less jumping and more true arm strength.
• David Robertson is just filthy. Even if he hadn't struck out all three batters he faced in the top of the ninth, the guy is nasty.

ROLL CALL!

Win Expectancy Graph

Source: FanGraphs

Studs

Duds