Yankees Drop Liriano, Twins 8-3

It didn't look too good early, as the Twins jumped out to 1-0 and 3-1 leads in the second and third innings, but it all fell apart for Francisco Liriano in the bottom of the third. He just couldn't find the strike zone, and when he did, the Yankee batters hit him hard. He allowed four runs in that frame via four singles, a walk and a sac-fly. Ron Gardenhire pulled him after having thrown 76 pitches in just 2.1 innings. It's been an ugly start to the season for him (11.91 ERA after three starts).

CC Sabathia settled down after the third, holding Minnesota scoreless the rest of his 7.1 innings. In fact, he only allowed five baserunners (against seven strikeouts), but the Twins went 2-3 with RISP, making his line look worse than it probably should have.

The big blow came off the bat of none other than Chris Stewart, who singled in two runs in the third (and had three RBI overall). Eduardo Nunez added two hits of the infield variety, one on a sensible bunt (down by a run, no outs, runner on second, good bunter, and fast, bunting for a hit). Andruw Jones added an insurance run by blasting a homer into the left field seats in the fourth. The Yanks had 13 hits - every starter other than A-Rod had a base knock and five had two apiece (Swisher, Jones, Nunez, GGBG, Stewart).

Play of the Game: Stewart's aforementioned bases-loaded single (+18%).

Comment(s) of the Game: Q-TDSK and GMan.