The Yankees begin a six-game road trip tonight against the Minnesota Twins, the last before the four-day All-Star break.
CC Sabathia, coming off his worst start since opening day, will try to start another winning streak. If last time was any indication, he'll come back strong: his second start of the year saw him go 7.2 scoreless innings. The Twinkies are very familiar with CC, having faced him more than any other team (outside of KC) from his days in Cleveland. And they won't be happy to see him - he's held Minnesota to a 3.12 ERA in 184.2 innings including a complete game shut-out in his last start against them (in June of '08). The only Twin with any real success against CC is Mike Redmond (32 PA, 1.140 OPS).
Scott Baker has been a kind of a mystery (wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma). He looked to be coming into his own after improving each of the last two seasons, but has disappointed this year, posting a 4.99 ERA. However, it may be largely attributed to luck, for his peripheral stats are either unchanged or better (save for a rise in homerun rate). The Yankees don't like seeing Baker either; he's limited the Yanks to two runs in 12 innings in two starts (but they haven't seen him since 2006).