Twins 6, Yankees 1

Scott Baker (4-7, 6.55 ERA) pitched a gem for five innings on Saturday afternoon against the Yankees, allowing just 1 run on 2 hits, walking three batters and striking out four. It was awesome to see Baker settle in to his starting role after being called back up from AAA Rochester.

If the Twins want to stay in the race, it's going to come down to good pitching performances like Scott's today. If the starters can go five or six innings, there's really no stopping the Twins bullpen from holding down the fort when given a decent lead. Dennys Reyes (0.86 ERA) pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, striking out a batter and Jesse Crain (4.08 ERA) finished the game by walking a batter before it started raining cats and dogs.

Jeff Karstens and his sweet eyebrows (1-1, 3.86 ERA) lasted seven innings, giving up 2 earned runs on 6 hits, walking one and striking out one. Minnesota had an early lead in the first after two straight singles by Luis Rodriguez (1 for 4) and Joe Mauer (1 for 3), and a sac fly by Michael Cuddyer (1 for 3), his 91st RBI of the year! New York answered with a Derek Jeter RBI double in the third, but then Torii Hunter (2 for 4) came up in the fourth with a home run against the wind to left field.

Then in the eighth inning, with Brian Bruney and his sweet 'stache (1.59 ERA) pitching, The Canadian Crusher (2 for 4) came up to the plate and blasted his 33rd home run of the season, chalking up his 114th RBI. Wow. That of course, makes it his Golden Home Run, being that he is number 33. With all the wind and rain, the game was called without the Yankees even getting a chance to play the bottom of the eighth, evening up the series at 1-1.

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Tomorrow, the Twins will look to take the series with Matt Garza (1-3, 5.06 ERA) on the hill against Darrell Rasner (career 0-1, 3.00 ERA). Rasner has only pitched 1.2 innings for New York this season, which came against Detroit on June 1st. He struck out 1 batter and allowed 1 hit. Garza has made HUGE strides in his last couple starts. He suffered a hard loss in his last outing against Kansas City when he pitched more than seven innings, allowing only 2 runs on 5 hits, striking out seven batters, but had no run support.


Liriano feels good throwing in spikes, story here.

The Twins remain 1/2 a game behind the White Sox in the Wild Card Race as of Saturday, with Chicago's 5-3 win over Kansas City. The Tigers lost to the Angels 2-7 and hold a 5 game lead in the division.