The LoHud Yankees Blog

One week ago, the Yankees were winless in one-run games. After tonight’s wins, their past three victory have been one-run wins.

“If you’re going to win the division,” Mark Teixeira said. “You have to win the close ones.”

There were a lot of stars today, and that includes A.J. Burnett, who didn’t throw a single pitch and still picked up a win.

Target Field has been a tough park for home runs. The Twins have hit 38 homer this season, only 10 of them in their new stadium. The Yankees, though, won today on solo home runs from Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher. Then Mariano Rivera closed out both games for only his second and third saves of the month. All three of those saves, of course, have come in the Yankees three one-run wins.

“I actually thought his stuff was better the second game than in the first game,” Joe Girardi said. “But I won’t make a habit of that.”

Here’s Rivera talking about his day, especially his day compared to his struggles last week. “Everything,” he said. “The ball coming out of my hand. The movement. The location. Everything was better.”

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• Andy Pettitte was awesome. Plain and simple. No pitch today was bigger than his eighth-inning cutter to Joe Mauer, getting the MVP to ground into a double play that stranded the go-ahead run at third base. Awesome quote from Pettitte: “It’s a tough situation because he’s such a great hitter. I threw him a ball in the first inning that I didn’t think he could hit and he drives in a run, hit it the other way. You don’t know how he does it. He’s just amazing to watch. He’s like Derek. He can take balls that other hitters can’t handle and hit them the other way.”

• Speaking of Pettitte, he said his changeup was the best it’s been in a long, long time. He was especially happy with his command of the fastball, cutter and change.

• Good line from Swisher about the difficulty of getting a ball out of Target Field: “In this ballpark with the height of the fence, you really have to hit it up in the air. I was talking to a couple of guys on the Twins and they were talking about how balls travel down the line pretty well, but once you get into the gaps, 403 with a 30-foot wall, I’m not going deep over there. It’s not possible for me. I understand that.”

• As early as the seventh inning of the second game, Girardi called down to the bullpen to make sure Rivera knew to be ready. He was going to use him if the Yankees got a lead.

• Finally free to acknowledge the signing of Chad Gaudin, Girardi said he expects Gaudin to move into the long relief role while Sergio Mitre will move into that middle-inning role that Alfredo Aceves filled before he was hurt. Basically, Mitre replaces Aceves, Gaudin replaces Mitre.

• Remember when the Yankees were winning so many games early in the season? A lot of that was due to production at the bottom of the order. Tonight No. 7 hitter Francisco Cervelli walked twice and scored a run, No. 8 hitter Kevin Russo had two hits, an RBI and a run and No. 9 hitter Brett Gardner had a game-tying triple.

• Dave Robertson was hit in the lower back by that first-game line drive. “I probably wouldn’t use him anyway tomorrow because of pitches, but he’s OK,” Girardi said.

• Derek Jeter seems to have found his stroke again, and that includes a home run and a double today. “It’s good to see him get back in his legs,” Girardi said. “I think that’s important when you see him drive the ball like that. That’s a good sign.”

• Juan Miranda pinch hit for Marcus Thames in the second game and positively crushed a ball to center field. “That ball is way out in most stadiums,” Teixeira said.

Associated Press photos of Swisher and Robertson.

YANKEES (27-18)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames DH
Francisco Cervelli C
Kevin Russo LF
Brett Gardner CF

LHP Andy Pettitte (5-1, 2.68 ERA)
Career vs. Twins

TWINS (26-19)
Denard Span CF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Joe Mauer DH
Justin Morneau 1B
Michael Cuddyer RF
Delmon Young LF
J.J. Hardy SS
Brandan Harris 3B
Drew Butera C

LHP Francisco Liriano (4-3, 3.25)
Career vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:10 p.m. / YES Network and ESPN2

UMPIRES: HP Brian O”Nora, 1B Scott Barry, 2B Phil Cuzzi, 3B Chris Guccione

WEATHER: Still the same terrific weather we enjoyed for the first game.

TOUGH MATCHUP: Jim Thome is a career .214 hitter against Andy Pettitte, but every other Twins position player with more than 12 career at-bats against the Yankees has starter has at least a .308 batting average. Delmon Young is a .563 hitter against Pettitte.

ONE IN THE BOOKS: The Yankees already have one win today, getting  a 1-0 win in the continuation of last night’s game. Here’s Derek Jeter’s postgame interview, which was pretty hilarious.

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UPDATE, 7:03 p.m.: The following moves have been made:

Chad Gaudin signed, added to the major league roster.
Boone Logan optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Shane Lindsay DFA to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Gaudin is wearing No. 41 and available for tonight’s game.

UPDATE, 7:14 p.m.: The Twins just distributed their lineup and it’s been added to the post. Meanwhile, Nick Swisher has a one-out double in the first inning.

UPDATE, 7:25 p.m.: Denard Span was called safe on a very close stolen base attempt at third base, and the Twins turned that into a run on Joe Mauer’s RBI single. Twins lead it, 1-0.

UPDATE, 8:05 p.m.: Andy Pettitte gets another double play ball to get through the third without allowing another Twins run. Problem is, this Yankees offense hasn’t done much to suggest they can overcome a 1-0 lead.

UPDATE, 8:14 p.m.: Big two-out RBI double by Russo has tied the game at 1. There’s a reason the Yankees are sticking with him in left field the past few days.

UPDATE, 8:20 p.m.: Russo’s still figuring out a few things in left field, but he’s athletic enough to get the job done. That catch against the wall was a pretty good one, and shows just how hard it is to get a ball out of this ball park. Jeter really crushed that homer in this afternoon’s continuation.

UPDATE, 8:48 p.m.: Two-out single by Russo, two-out triple by Gardner. Just like that, the Yankees have a 2-1 lead.

UPDATE, 8:59 p.m.: Andy Pettitte keeps rolling. A 1-2-3 sixth inning has the Yankees still on top, 2-1.

UPDATE, 9:10 p.m.: So much for that lead. An RBI double by Delmon Young has tied the game and some bodies are starting to move in the Yankees bullpen. Still no one getting loose, though.

UPDATE, 9:20 p.m.: Pinch hitting for Thames, Juan Miranda just smoked a ball to center field, but it died in this park and was caught on the track. Still tied at 2.

UPDATE, 9:37 p.m.: I don’t remember ever seeing Andy Pettitte that pumped up on the field. Huge 3-1 pitch to Mauer to get an inning-ending double play. Wow. Still tied at 2.

UPDATE, 9:44 p.m.: Nick Swisher, ladies and gentlemen. First Jeter does it in the first game, now Swisher does it in the second.

Joe Girardi said he can’t a player move just yet but he “might” have move shortly. For now, here’s the lineup.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames DH
Francisco Cervelli C
Kevin Russo LF
Brett Gardner CF

YANKEES (26-18)
Derek Jeter SS
Brett Gardner CF
Mark Teixeira DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Juan Miranda 1B
Francisco Cervelli C
Kevin Russo LF

RHP A.J. Burnett (4-2, 3.86 ERA)
Career vs. Twins

TWINS (26-18)
Denard Span CF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Joe Mauer C
Justin Morneau 1B
Michael Cuddyer RF
Jason Kubel DH
Delmon Young LF
J.J. Hardy SS
Brendan Harris 3B

RHP Scott Baker (4-4, 4.88)
Career vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 5:05 p.m. / MY9

UMPIRES: HP Chris Guccione, 1B Brian O”Nora, 2B Scott Barry, 3B Phil Cuzzi

WEATHER: Hard to imagine rain spoiling tonight’s games. We have a blue sky and a beautiful day here in Minneapolis.

BEGIN AGAIN: The Yankees and Twins will resume last night’s game in the top of the sixth inning. It’s still scoreless. Dave Robertson will be on the mound for the Yankees. Brian Duensing will pitch for the Twins.

Robertson vs. the Twins

Duensing vs. the Yankees

So far, Derek Jeter, Brett Gardner and Alex Rodriguez have hits in the game for the Yankees. Gardner is 1-for-1 with a walk. Mark Teixeira is 0-for-2, with each at-bat coming with a runner on base.

UPDATE, 5:10 p.m.: Derek Jeter — remember him? — just gave the Yankees the lead with a solo home run into the bullpen in left-center. A.J. Burnett is officially in line for the win.

UPDATE, 5:20 p.m.: Dave Robertson got hit so hard by a line drive that it was caught on the fly by Alex Rodriguez, who had to back up to make the catch. But Robertson is staying in the game. If you’re ever wondering who’s tougher, Dave Robertson or Chad Jennings, trust your gut and go with Robertson.

UPDATE, 5:27 p.m.: Jeter still makes that play to his right pretty well. Another of the Captain’s jump throws has gotten the Yankees out of the sixth inning with runners stranded at second and third.

UPDATE, 5:45 p.m.: Joba Chamberlain and Damaso Marte are getting loose in the Yankees pen.

UPDATE, 6:13 p.m.: It’s been a bit of a high-wire act, but Chamberlain and Robertson have gotten the Yankees through the sixth, seventh and eighth with the 1-0 lead still intact. Mariano Rivera is, of course, getting ready for the ninth.

UPDATE, 6:23 p.m.: This park plays big, and that’s good for Rivera. J.J. Hardy just hit a ball to the track in left-center, but Kevin Russo was there for the running catch and the first out of the ninth inning.

UPDATE, 6:26 p.m.: A.J. Burnett gets the win. Mariano Rivera gets the save. Derek Jeter has the game-winning home run, which was the Yankees first since Thursday.

It’s hard to tell from my cell phone camera, but that’s a picture of Francisco Cervelli dancing around the cage during batting practice.

It’s been that kind of day here at Target Field. Everything is just a little bit different from the norm. I’m not sure why, but the idea of playing a half game before a full game seems to have created a really loose atmosphere around the Yankees. While Joe Girardi was doing his usual pregame session with the media in the dugout, Derek Jeter came out of the clubhouse and immediately offered a question of his own.

“Joe, have you hit the panic button yet?”

“No, I have not Jeet.”

Jeter cracked up. So did Girardi. It’s been that kind of day.

As for the games themselves, Girardi did not talk about Chad Gaudin but said the team will “possibly” make a move between games. He also said the Yankees will play to win the first game, then take the second game as it comes. He won’t specifically save a pitcher for Game 2.

“If you have a chance to win the first game, you manage it like you’re only playing one game,” Girardi said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen the second game.”

• Nothing new to report on Alfredo Aceves aside from the fact he’s scheduled to see a doctor this week.

• Dave Robertson will start the sixth inning for the Yankees.

• Girardi said he will “probably not” use any of his pitchers in both games.

• Can Francisco Cervelli play both games? “I think so,” Girardi said.

Good job by our good friend Mark Feinsand who’s reporting that the Yankees have agreed to bring back Chad Gaudin to pitch out of the Yankees bullpen. Gaudin is reportedly already in Minneapolis to be activated before tonight’s game and a half.

Gaudin would give the team an additional long man, and could essentially take the place of Alfredo Aceves who suffered a setback on Tuesday when he once again felt pain in his lower back.

Of course, the Yankees had Gaudin this spring, but he became the odd man out when Sergio Mitre pitched extremely well. He signed with Oakland, was designated for assignment and now he appears to be coming back to where his season started. Last year he went 2-0 with a 3.43 ERA as a late-season addition in New York.

In a few hours, the Yankees will resume last night’s game and find out whether five scoreless innings from A.J. Burnett was enough to win. If it takes two hours to play those final four-or-more innings, the game will have taken a full 24 hours to complete.*

Of course, the idea is not to take as long as possible, it’s to score runs and win. Derek Jeter and Brett Gardner gave the Yankees that chance yesterday, and had the middle of the order been able to take advantage of the two-on, no-out situation in the fourth inning, the Yankees would have won the thing already. Naturally, it was Mark Teixeira who was first to the plate with the go-ahead run in scoring position, and he popped out, continuing his recent struggles.

Teixeira said after the game that he’s trying not to change his routine. He’s not taking more or fewer swings, just trying to stick with what has always worked.

“Just getting back to doing what I’ve always done,” he said.

* Having just been home for 10 days in a row, yesterday seemed like an especially long day that was bound to last forever. That press box was full of writers who were dragging after a few hours sleep and possibly an airplane nap. I managed to sleep until 10 a.m. local time this morning. I was thoroughly down for the count!

If tomorrow goes exactly as A.J. Burnett wants it to go, the Yankees will score a few runs in the first inning — actually the sixth — and make Burnett a winning pitcher on a day he doesn’t pitch.

Isn’t that what Burnett will be rooting for?

“Believe it,” he said.

Burnett pitched well tonight, especially in those last three innings when he retired nine straight at one point and looked like the dominant pitcher we saw in April. Four of his last six outs were strikeouts.

“Even in the first I felt like I was a little off,” he said. “But I really started to feel the correct turn, the correct balance, the correct everything in the third and fourth really. After the first I felt pretty good.”

Said Joe Girardi: “He was really good. Attacked the strike zone. Got a lot of ground ball outs. And when he was going good, that’s what he was doing.”

He’ll wait until tomorrow to find out whether it was enough to win.

Here’s Girardi’s postgame — mid-game? — media session.

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• Burnett didn’t go into specifics, but he did say this: “I used certain fastballs differently and pitched some guys differently than I normally would, and saw some positive results from those.”

• As you might expect, Girardi would not announce who his first pitcher will be tomorrow’s game. He said everyone will find out when he tells a pitcher to start getting loose in the bullpen. Just a guess, but it could be one of the left-handed relievers, because three of the first four Twins due up are left-handed.

• As for whether he needs extra relievers to get through 13 innings tomorrow, Girardi said he think the team will be alright, but he’ll talk to Brian Cashman about possibly having a pitcher on standby similar to when Jonathan Albaladejo was on standby during the Detroit doubleheader. “Obviously Serge can give you a lot of pitches,” Girardi said.

• The Yankees could have won this game had they taken advantage of that two-on, no-out situation in the fourth, but the heart of the order couldn’t so much as bring the lead runner to third base. “It’s all part of managing,” Girardi said. “It’s all understanding the ups and downs of the game and knowing that it’s going to change. It could change tomorrow.”

• Said Mark Teixeira: “It’s the ebb and flow of a season. Obviously we haven’t been swinging the bats like we’re capable of, but everyone’s working hard. Everyone’s trying to get the job done and I have a good feeling we’re going to bounce back.”

• Pretty funny line from Girardi about how quickly the crew got the tarp on the field, after not having a rain delay in this city in nearly 30 years: “I wonder how many times they practiced?”

• Teixeira on his personal struggles: “This is my eighth year. I’ve had a lot of ups, a lot of downs. I’ve never tried to reinvent myself.”

• No one thought to ask Girardi, but it could be interesting to see how he uses his catchers tomorrow. We could see Chad Moeller’s first start in the second game. Obviously you’d rather use Moeller in the shortened restart and save Francisco Cervelli for the full game, but that would mean taking Cervelli out of the first game and not having him available for those final four innings.

The game has been suspended.

It will resume at 4:05 p.m. tomorrow. The regularly scheduled game will start at 6:10 or 30 minutes after the resumed game. Those times are local here in Minnesota.

YANKEES (26-18)
Derek Jeter SS
Brett Gardner CF
Mark Teixeira DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Juan Miranda 1B
Francisco Cervelli C
Kevin Russo LF

RHP A.J. Burnett (4-2, 3.86 ERA)
Career vs. Twins

TWINS (26-18)
Denard Span CF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Joe Mauer C
Justin Morneau 1B
Michael Cuddyer RF
Jason Kubel DH
Delmon Young LF
J.J. Hardy SS
Brendan Harris 3B

RHP Scott Baker (4-4, 4.88)
Career vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 8:10 p.m. / MY9

UMPIRES: HP Chris Guccione, 1B Brian O”Nora, 2B Scott Barry, 3B Phil Cuzzi

WEATHER: A few clouds in the sky, but it’s a nice and warm night here in Minneapolis. If the weather were always like this, I’m sure this would be a great city to live in, but I’m not convinced I could handle the winters.

MAY DAY: Nick Swisher his batting .361 with 16 runs, five home runs and 13 RBI through 18 games this month. In his past two Mays combined, Swisher hit .164 with four home runs and 16 RBI through 54 games.

BAT OFF THE BENCH: Don’t discount the value of Marcus Thames on the Yankees bench. Thames is 9-for-29 with four home runs in his career against Twins starter Baker. He’s the only Yankees with more than 12 career at-bats against Baker.

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME: Yankees starter A.J. Burnett has had little success against Joe Mauer — .467/.556/.733 in 15 at-bats — but he’s been terrific against Michael Cuddyer, who’s hit just .125/.222/.188 in 15 at-bats.

UPDATE, 8:45 p.m.: Double plays in both the first and second inning have kept the Yankees off the board, but so far A.J. Burnett has been able to keep the game scoreless by stranding a runner in scoring position each of the first two innings.

UPDATE, 8:59 p.m.: The crowd here at Target Field seemed to think that ball by Morneau was leaving the park, but Swisher caught it on the track to end the third inning. Still scoreless.

UPDATE, 9:04 p.m.: Remember when I was raving about the weather? Now it’s raining pretty hard. The crowd is running for cover and the scouts have moved into the press box. Might have a rain delay in our future.

UPDATE, 9:07 p.m.: There is a squirrel loose on the field, and the crowd is chanting, “Let’s go Squir-rel!”

UPDATE, 9:11 p.m.: Brutal. The Yankees had two on and no outs with the heart of the order up, but Teixeira, Rodriguez and Cano couldn’t so much as move the lead runner to third.

UPDATE, 9:20 p.m.: Good thing Good A.J. showed up. He’s keeping the Yankees in this thing.

UPDATE, 9:30 p.m.: Burnett had retired nine in a row before a two-out bunt single by Span in the fifth inning.

UPDATE, 9:34 p.m.: After Burnett struck out Orlando Hudson to end the fifth with Span stranded at second base, we’re all lucky enough to be here for Target Field’s first rain delay. The tarp is apparently sponsored by Chevy. Seriously.

UPDATE, 9:36 p.m.: Must not be expecting this to last long. The Yankees are staying in the dugout.

UPDATE, 9:57 p.m.: The last time the Twins had a rain delay at home: September 26, 1981 against Texas. It was a 48 minute delay in front of 4,959 people.

UPDATE, 10:30 p.m.: No announcement from the Twins regarding a possible start time, but it’s still raining and there’s been some thunder and lightning.