WHY THE YANKS WERE "THIS CLOSE" TO A COMEBACK

I know, I know, it’s April, but losing to the Minnesota Twins anytime of the year sucks. The Yankees have flat out owned the Twins the last several years, but this year that hasn’t been the case as the Yanks lost 6-5 in this one.

The Yankees were originally down 6-4 to start the 9th inning and Matt Capps came on to try to nail down the save. After getting ARod to ground out in his only at-bat of the game, Derek Jeter hit an opposite field homer into the Yankee bullpen to make it 6-5. Curtis Granderson then promptly struck out on three pitches after Jeter's jack, so the Yanks had one out to play with and Mark Teixeira was up. When Tex made contact it seemed as though he tied it, but he didn’t. He just missed it, and Clete Thomas caught it a couple steps in front of the track and the Twins win their second of three games at the Stadium. For shame.Hiroki Kuroda started, and he was less than stellar. He allowed four runs right out of the chute in the first inning, while allowing another in the third and another in the fifth before getting pulled with one out in said fifth inning. In total Hiroki went 4.1 innings, allowed 10 hits (two homers), on six runs. He also struck out four and didn’t walk a batter. So, if you’re scoring from home, Kuroda has one great start and two crap starts. Jump to conclusions at your own risk.

Derek Jeter is on fire, folks, it’s as simple as that. Jeter hit his fourth homer of the season in the 9th inning and had two more hits. In total he went 3-for-5 with one RBI and two runs scored. He's now batting .389 with a 1.089 OPS in the early going. Robinson Cano also hit a homer, his first of the year. He had two hits on the evening as well as Raul Ibanez and Mark Teixeira.

The Yanks will try to salvage a split in this series before heading to Fenway for a weekend set. Phil Hughes will try to right the ship as he has struggled so far this season.

Oh, and Brett Gardner was placed on the 15-Day disabled list due to a right elbow issue (Read HERE). The Yanks will call up relief pitcher Cody Eppley to strengthen the bullpen which means either Andruw Jones or Raul Ibanez will man left field for the next 15 days…Gulp.



--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse

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