Kuroda, Rain, and Pen Dominate the Twins

Kuroda has been the Yankees ace and should be an All-Star

I am starting to honestly believe the Yankees could win 160 of 162 meetings with the Minnesota Twins. Last night the Yankees endured a 73 minute rain delay to win their 5th straight meeting with the Twins this season and their 3rd straight win overall.

Hiroki Kuroda lowered his league leading ERA to 2.65 (Just 1.74 at Yankee Stadium) by throwing five innings (one after the delay) of six hit ball in a 2-0 Yankees win. The Yankees pen, particularly Boone Logan, came up big over the final four innings.

The Yankees had managed just one hit in 3.1 innings off Twins starter Scott Diamond, but jumped on Ryan Pressly in the 5th for a pair of runs. Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano provided RBI singles to account for the Yankees runs.

Yankees reliever Preston Claiborne breezed through the 6th, but put two aboard in the 7th. A call to the bullpen sent Logan in to the rescue. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire called for Chad Parmalee to bunt the runners on first and second over, but the right fielder fouled off two attempts and then Logan struck him out swinging.

Logan's real challenge came up next though- the back to back duo of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. To make matters worse, Logan gave the Twins the equivalent of a bunt when he wild pitched the runners over a base. But the left-hander caught Mauer looking with a curve ball for strike three and Morneau couldn't hold up his swing for an inning ending strikeout. A disgusted Morneau flipped his bat in the air and threw his helmet, but was not tossed from the game.

Mariano Rivera picked up his 30th save with a 1-2-3 9th inning.

Notes

The Twins displayed some remarkable defensive plays in the game, no better than when Aaron Hicks threw out Vernon Wells trying to stretch a double into a triple. A fan use Google Earth to estimate the throw was 325 feet.