Game 83 - Yanks Pound Twinkies

CC Sabathia rebounded from his previous bad start, tossing 7 innings of 3-hit, 1 run ball, and the Bombers pounded out 16 hits in a 10-2 victory over the Twins. CC's only mistake of the night came on a fastball he grooved to Mike Cuddyer, who hit his 14th HR of the season. The other 2 hits were weakly hit infield singles. CC struck out 3 and walked one - strangely, it was against the very weak hitting, Nick Punto. He held the faux M & M boys, Mauer and Morneau, hitless in 6 ABs after the Yanks had trouble getting either of them out in their 4-game series in the Bronx earlier this season.

The Yankee bats were led by the bottom third of the order. Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli were a combined 7-14 with 6 RBIs. Each of them had an extra base hit with 2 RBIs. Cano snapped an ungodly 0-22 slump with RISP when he blooped a bases loaded single in the 6th, albeit with the Yanks already up 5-1. Gardner followed with a 2-run triple and Cervelli's double gave the Yanks an insurmountable 10-1 lead. Earlier, Cervelli knocked in the Yanks second run with a long sac fly in the 2nd inning.

Mark Teixeira also went 4-6 with an RBI, hopefully breaking out of his snide. Hideki Matsui demonstrated what a real 5th place hitter in the lineup does when he got the Pinstripers on the board in the 1st with a 2-out RBI single. Hopefully, Cano was taking notes. The Yanks nearly blew the game wide open in the 4th, but Twins CF, Carlos Gomez, made a beautiful leaping catch at the fence, robbing ARod of a grand slam. ARod settled for the sac fly, but just missed HR #568.

Seldom used Brett Tomko pitched the final 2 frames, giving up one run. Oddly enough, he also walked the .218 hitting Punto, who came around to score the Twins last run. Punto has 11 HRs in 2000+ ABs in his career - I'd take my chances pitching the ball underhanded to him before walking this guy. The Sawx won 5-2 against Oakland, remaining 1 game up in the division. Hopefully, AJ Burnett continues his recent hot stretch in game 2.

Yankees Record: 49-34