New York Yankees blank Minnesota Twins 3-0 for 3-1 series win – MLB Update
Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira provided the best back up to Ivan Nova in the club’s 3-0 shutout win over the Minnesota Twins in the final outing, at the Target Field Minneapolis on Sunday, August 21 to take the four-game series 3-1.
Yankees’ starter Ivan Nova restricted the Minnesota Twins’ bat to no-score in his seven innings spell. The right-hand hurler yielded only five hits and one walk while struck-out five batters to get his thirteenth win of the season. Nova tossed 101 pitches,
63 out of which were strikes that took him to 13-4 impressive record with 3.97 ERA in 21 games in 2011 regular season.
It was the tenth straight win for Nova. He has not lost a game since June 3 when he dropped eight hits and three runs over six innings against the Los Angeles Angels for his fourth loss of the season.
Russell Martin hit a sacrifice fly to centre to shatter the scoreless tie in the top of the sixth inning. Alex Rodriguez, who played after coming off the disabled list, worked 0-for-5 but Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira played tremendously to take the
Yankees to their 77th win of the season.
Granderson launched an inside the park home-run and floated in the air between the bases to help the Yankees in another win.
"Nothing he does really surprises me anymore," Girardi said. "You just kind of expect him to do something great every day."
Rodriguez was playing after missing 38 games due to surgery on his right knee. This surgery has limited his swinging power and consequently he had made only 13 home-runs in his first 80 games. He is struggling to get his 14th homer since June 11. However,
he showed no sign of worry and remained cool throughout the game.
"I was happy with the way I saw the ball and happy with my balance," Rodriguez said. "I got a lot of good pitches to hit and just missed them by a little bit. But I liked the way I felt up there."
The Twins' starter Nick Blackburn allowed four walks and one hit over one inning before his manager Ron Gardenhire replaced him with Anthony Swarzak. He threw a scoreless two innings but Phil Dumatrait allowed one run and Jose Mijares yielded two runs.
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