Yankees 10, Twins 4 : Offense good!

It looked like the Yankees were trying really hard to put "The Scoreless Month" behind them and scored the most runs they had since May 24th. It was a truly cathartic victory.

Things started out wonderfully, as Robinson Cano hit a Bob-omb (credit Andrew Mearns) over the wall in dead center for a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Andy Pettitte quickly gave up the lead and more in a 3-run bottom of the first. It was particularly embarrassing when Andy fell on his duff attempting to field an Oswaldo Arcia grounder in front of the mound, throwing it away and granting the Twins their third run. Fortunately, Cano decided he would do everything for the offense and hit an opposite-field two-run dinger in the top of the third to knot everything up again.

Pettitte settled down and pitched four clean innings in a row while the offense opted to not help. He even broke Whitey Ford’s team record for strikeouts! Then Chris Parmelee decided to ruin things and hit a sky-high fly that cleared the right field fence by about a foot that gave the Twins run number four and ended Andy’s night. He exited with a 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 4K line for the evening. It was another rough outing for the Yankee great.

For a while it looked like it would be another tough one-run loss, but Cano continued to terrorize the Twinkies with a leadoff double in the eighth, which was followed by a pinch-bunt (a good one!) by Ichiro Suzuki that was thrown into right field by Jared Burton, allowing Cano to score. And in turn, Ichiro would come around on a Zoilo Almonte single through a drawn-in Twins infield. And Almonte would score on a Chris Stewart groundout, mostly thanks to Almonte getting a ridiculous jump from third. The Twins got to deal with David Robertson in the bottom of the eighth when he promptly struck out the side with some vicious curveballs.

In the ninth, the Yankees showed no mercy to their staggered opponent and added insurance runs with bases-loaded hits from Travis Hafner and Almonte. A Chris Stewart walk forced home run number nine and number ten was scored by Hafner on a passed ball. Double digits! The Yankees scored runs like a big-boy offense today. In the ninth, Mariano Rivera did what he usually does and shut down the opposition with ease.

So it was a wonderful start to the new month after the Hell that was June. Cano took no pity, Jayson Nix was useful and even Vernon Wells got a couple of hits. Andy pitching poorly again will probably have to be addressed at some point, but not by this author. It's a celebration: nothing but happy thoughts until the next game!