New York Yankees 2012 regular season review – Part 11
After securing comfortable series victories against the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Angels were feeling very confident about themselves. Manager Jim Leyland was expecting his men to continue the good work in their next three match series against
the Minnesota Twins as well but that did not turn out to be the case in Game 1 on April 16.
Using their conditions extremely effectively, the Twins dominated the Twins in almost all departments of the game.
The pitching rotation in particular played a big part in deciding the outcome of the clash as they limited the powerful Yankees’ batting line up to just three runs in scoring friendly conditions.
Starting pitcher Carl Pavano showed the stuff he is capable of as he allowed just seven hits and three runs in seven sharp innings to lay the foundation of his team’s victory. Striking out six batters, he kept pressure on the Yankees’ throughout the contest.
Yankees’ starter Freddy Garcia paid the ultimate price for his errors on the mound as he allowed nine hits and five runs in just over five innings to take his first loss of the season. Relief pitchers Bone Logan, Chris Wade and Clay Rapada combined to give
up just two runs in three plus innings but the Twins held on to their lead with ease to secure a deserving victory.
"It wasn't about coming in here and putting everything behind me. Everything I went through is behind me," Pavano said. "It was coming in here and getting this team on track."http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/5379/justin-morneau"For him to come out in a hostile environment then go out and pitch the way he did, I was real proud of him," Twins catcher Ryan Doumit said.
"They have some pretty good hitters now, you got to make good pitches to get those guys out," Garcia said.
"Morny's got a nice look on his face," Gardenhire said in a post game interview. "He's enjoying the game of baseball."
Captain Derek Jeter, outfielder Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira made useful contributions with the bat but their effort was not enough to take the Yankees home.
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