New York

Facing another series sweep in the Bronx, the Twins pulled off some magic usually reserved for the Yankees.

Jason Kubel’s two-out, eighth-inning grand slam off Mariano Rivera powered Minnesota to a 6-3 win over New York Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

With the win, Minnesota ended a 12-game losing streak in New York. The Twins had not won a game at Yankee Stadium since July 4, 2007.

With all due respect to Javier Vazquez, I’m tired of hearing about him and his lack of prosperous pitching.

Give him a break—he’ll eventually get to where he needs to be. Well, at least we hope.

The Yankees did have a three-pitcher rotation in the playoffs this past season, and what did we get? A world championship. They can certainly pull this off again if need be, so Vazquez is not of primary concern at the moment.

With Curtis Granderson on the 15-day disabled list, Yankees outfielder Randy Winn will receive significant playing time in the outfield.

On Monday night, he provided the power stroke with a three-run home run to help lead New York past Baltimore, 4-1, at Yankee Stadium.

CC Sabathia (4-1) pitched eight innings of one-run ball to earn the win, while Jeremy Guthrie (0-4) suffered the loss.

Joba Chamberlain pitched the ninth for his first save of the season. Mariano Rivera was unavailable due to stiffness in his left side.

So far in 2010, it's pretty safe to say that Javier Vazquez stinks for the Yankees.

He hasn't just been bad. He's been horrific—so horrific that every time he departs from Yankee Stadium, he gets by far the loudest boos of the team.

In his first five starts back with the team, he is 1-3 with a 9.78 ERA.

His longest outing thus far has been 5.2 innings. His innings totals aren't that high, but his hits, runs, walks, and ERA are extremely high.

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter reached another milestone this past weekend and did so quietly.

Not much mention was made of baseball's poster boy after he took over the active hits lead.

As of today, Jeter has 2,781 hits and has overtaken Ken Griffey Jr. for the active lead. Griffey has 2,776 as I write this.

It is quite a feat for Jeter to already catch "Junior." Griffey already had over 1,000 hits by the time Jeter came to the Majors.

Not yet...

The starting pitching had to let down at some point this season. It’s virtually impossible to keep up the pace.

Mike Pelfrey got the fun started, giving up six runs in the fourth inning on Saturday en route to a 10-0 loss, the first loss for the Mets in eight games.

Things only got worst on Sunday when Johan Santana put up his worst effort in his time with the Mets, as he gave up 10 runs in less than four innings pitched.

This is do or die for New York's Javier Vazquez . Unfortunately for Javy, with the way John Danks has been throwing the ball lately, it is looking more like the latter.

Fans are not going to be kind to the man who is making $11.5 million and is being outpitched by 23-year-old Phil Hughes , who is making $447,000.

Hughes is far and away performing better than Vazquez this year, and Yankees fans are certainly going to let him know that.

The Yankees signed outfielder Marcus Thames this season to do one job—hit lefties.

So far, all he has done is destroy lefties.

Try these numbers on for size: 8 G, 16 AB, 3 R, 10 H, 3 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 4 K, .625 AVG, .684 OBP, 1.000 SLG, 1.684 OPS.

Now, so far Thames’ outfield defense has been pretty atrocious, but nights like last night (3-for-3 with a double and an RBI) make it hard to stay mad at him.

At the end of Spring Training, Carlos Beltran said that he wanted to begin running exercises in Port St. Lucie, Florida on April 10 and rejoin the Mets by at least early May, but three weeks after Beltran’s self-imposed deadline, he is still not close to returning to the lineup.

According to the New York Daily News, Beltran was fitted for a custom knee brace last week, which he hoped would help accelerate his rehabilitation.

When you think of recent Yankees teams, generally the first thing that comes to mind is the high-scoring offense.

With guys like Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, and Derek Jeter leading your offense, the Yankees are never out of any games where they are behind.

But when you get right down to what the major strength of the current Yankees really is, you will see that it is the starting pitching.