In the first playoff game at brand-new Target Field in Minnesota, the Yankees' quest for a repeat of a World Series Championship began successfully Wednesday night against the Twins with a 6-4 win.
The Yankees sent ace CC Sabathia to square off against Twins' ace Francisco Liriano in Game 1 of the ALDS.
The Twins got off to a quick start in the bottom of the second inning when Michael Cuddyer hit a two-run home run to center field that gave Minnesota an early 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third inning, with Delmon Young batting, Orlando Hudson scored on a passed ball and the Twins were quickly up 3-0.
Was this finally going to be the night the Twins got off to a great start in the playoffs and won their first playoff game in eight years?
Not so fast, these are the Yankees we're talking about. They've been in these situations before.
After pitching five shutout innings against the Yankees and keeping them off-balance, Liriano finally struggled in the sixth.
Mark Teixeira doubled, and later advanced to third on a wild pitch during Alex Rodriguez's at-bat. A-Rod eventually walked, setting up first and third with one out. Robinson Cano hit an RBI single to right which cut the Twins' lead to 3-1.
Jorge Posada singled to right, scoring A-Rod, making it 3-2.
Curtis Granderson, who is known for struggling against left-handed pitching, took a Liriano fastball and crushed it to right-center field—missing a home run by about a foot—for a two-run triple and the Yankees were now up 4-3.
How quick momentum can swing.
After getting the first two outs of the sixth inning, Sabathia loaded the bases and walked Danny Valencia to tie the game at four. Sabathia struck out J.J. Hardy to escape any further damage.
In the top of the seventh, Nick Swisher singled off Jesse Crain, then Teixeira hit a two-run home run to right field, sneaking it past the foul pole and put the Yankees ahead 6-4.
Following Sabathia, Boone Logan, David Robertson, and Kerry Wood got through the seventh and most of the eighth innings, while Mariano Rivera was called on to get the final four outs and lock down the win.
In the bottom of the eighth, Rivera got Denard Span to ground out to short, ending a potential Twins threat with runners on second and third.
In the ninth inning, Rivera got Orlando Hudson and Joe Mauer to ground out for the first two outs, and Delmon Young's fly out to Greg Golson should have ended the game, but what looked like a great catch ended up being called a single.
However, Jim Thome popped out to third to end the game, and the Yankees won Game 1 of the ALDS.
Sabathia, despite struggling with his command, ended up picking up the win. Sabathia went six innings, allowed five hits, four runs, three walks, and struck out five.
Liriano came close to taking the loss for the Twins. He started out pitching extremely well and then fell apart in the sixth inning. Liriano lasted 5.2 innings, allowing six hits, four runs, three walks, while striking out seven.
Crain ended up taking the loss for Minnesota when he allowed the seventh inning home run to Teixeira.
The Yankees will quickly turn around to play the Twins in Game 2 tomorrow. Andy Pettitte, who has the most wins in postseason history, will take the ball for the Yankees and face Twins right-hander Carl Pavano, a former Yankee who spent most of his tenure in the Bronx on the disabled list and is deeply hated by most New York fans for "stealing $40 million from the Yankees."
The Yankees needed to get this victory tonight to get themselves in the right direction. If they had fallen behind 1-0 to Minnesota, it would have continued a trend which they were struggling at the end of the regular season, but by rallying to win, the Yankees have seemed to taken control of their own situation and gained momentum going into Thursday.
One down, 10 to go until number 28 for Yankees Universe.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments