Morneau’s Big Night Sinks Yankees

The Twins had Hiroki Kuroda‘s number last night, tagging him for 10 hits and six runs before he left the game to a hail of boos after just 4 1/3 innings. Justin Morneau had the biggest night for the Twins, taking Kuroda deep two times and racking up three RBI while scoring three runs. Definitely not the follow-up Kuroda was hoping for after his stellar Yankee Stadium debut.

On the pitching upside, the bullpen continues to pitch well. Boone Logan struck out four in his 2.0 innings of work, while Clay Rapada had 2 Ks in 1.2 IP. Rafael Soriano closed out the game for the Yanks and held the Twins scoreless, though he did allow a hit and a walk in just 1.0 inning. All in all it was more work for the bullpen than any of us would have hoped for last night, but I can’t complain about the ‘pen holding the Twins to just three hits and no runs for 4.2 innings.

On the offensive side, Old Man Jeter continues to rake. (Just kidding with that nickname, by the way.) The Captain was 3-5 with 2 runs scored and an RBI, raising his BA to a hefty .389. Robinson Cano hit a monster home run in his 2-4 night and tacked on two runs scored and two RBI. But at the end of the night the 18 men the Yankees left on base came back to bite them as their one-run loss last night dropped them to an even 6-6 record for the season.

The takeaway from this game: Yankees pitchers need to minimize the number of home runs given up. It’s a pretty common sense concept, but the long ball absolutely killed A.J. Burnett last season during his starts at Yankee Stadium, and it got the best of Kuroda last night as well.