Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada homer as New York Yankees defeat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 – MLB Recap
It seems as if the New York Yankees are going ahead to sweep the Minnesota Twins again in the 2011 Major League Baseball season. The American League’s Yankees defeated the Twins 4-2 on Monday after a close confrontation in the first of a four-game series.
With a packed crowd in Yankees Stadium, Alex Rodriguez homered in first and Ivan Nova tossed six shut-out innings to lead the team to their third win of the season. The Yankees also made their fourteenth triumph in their last fifteen outings against the
Twins.
Third baseman Rodriguez, having 1,833 career RBIs, added another homer to his 614 Major League record. Rodriguez, who needed just 15 homers to pass Ken Griffey’s 630, led off the Yankees in the first inning launching a two-run 368-feet long grand slam. Jorge
Posada took advantage of the pressure created by Rodriguez and tossed a two-run homer adding a third homer in two days.
"I think everybody's fresh and its April," Posada said. "If I was catching or DHing, I think I would feel the same way."
The 24-year-old Nova, making his first start of the season, tossed three scoreless innings before he went for first run in the fourth when Jim Thome doubled on a fly-ball allowing Justin Morneau and Delmon Young to score and trimming the lead to 4-2.
Nova tossed six innings, allowed just three runs on six hits, and managed three strike-outs. He tossed 50 strike-out pitches out of 83 and ended the game with a 4.50 Earned run average. Despite receiving three runs that could have given the opposition a
win, manager Joe Girardi seemed pleased of his contribution.
"You want to get off to a good start, you want to get through the sixth, and he did exactly that," Girardi said.
The Twins starting pitcher Scott Baker, after receiving two early four-run homers, struck back by striking-out four in the remaining four innings without allowing any hit. Baker also injured hitter Mark Teixeira with a two-out pitch in the first inning before
receiving a homer by Alex. Twins’ reliever Kevin Solwey and David Hughes both strived hard to restrict the opposition from adding more runs and remained successful.
The Twins’ manager Ron Gardenhire praised the early recovery of the pitchers, but mentioned the batters inability to earn runs in the later innings. He also acknowledged the Yankees strength by saying, “Their back end of the bullpen is pretty good."
Yankees’ reliever Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano and closer Mariano Rivera did not let the game fall into the Twins’ side throughout in their short one-inning spells.
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