TWINS HALT STREAKING YANKEES WITH 5-1 WIN
Scott out-duels Mussina; Yankees offense




By: Russ Rose
Special to Yankees Talk Shop
April 15, 2006

The best way to stop a good hitting team is to throw good pitching at them.

The Minnesota Twins did just that to the New York Yankees Friday night.

Sophomore pitcher Scott Baker, facing the Yankees for the first time in his career, pitched seven brilliant innings holding the Yankees offense to just one run on four hits; as the Twins went on to beat the Yankees 5-1 before a crowd of .

The Yankees scored first in the third inning after Robinson Cano went to third on Johnny Damon’s double to right-field. Cano scored on Derek Jeter’s ground out and the Yankees led 1-0.

Mike Mussina started out well, but got into trouble in the third inning when he gave up three straight singles to Lew Ford, Juan Castro and Shannon Stewart. Stewart’s single scored Ford as Castro advanced to second. Both Castro and Stewart advanced to third and second on a wild pitch thrown by Mussina to second baseman Luis Castillo. Castro later scored on Castillo’s ground out to shortstop Derek Jeter.

Baker continued to throw up goose eggs as he pitched four more scoreless innings. Mussina was nearly as brilliant, but ran into trouble again in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Twins, with two outs, manufactured an insurance run. Mussina got two strikes on Tony Batista before walking him. Ford followed with a single. Mussina then faced Juan Castro. Castro spoiled nine of Mussina’s pitches before singling to left field on a breaking ball Mussina hung over the plate. That was Mussina’s last batter as manager Joe Torre relieved him with rookie Matt Smith, who was making his major league debut. Smith walked Stewart before getting Castillo to bounce out to Robinson Cano to end the inning.

The Yankees appeared to have been the victims of a bad call in the fifth inning by home plate umpire Ed Montague. Catcher Jorge Posada reached second base on a single and an error when second baseman Luis Castillo knocked down Posada’s hit and made a hurried throw to first, which first baseman Justin Morneau failed to scoop up.


Posada moved to third on a fly ball to left-field as he took advantage of Shannon Stewart’s weak throwing arm. Bernie Williams hit a fly ball to right-field, which was flagged down by Ford. Posada tagged up as Ford wound up and threw a one-hop strike to catcher Joe Mauer as Posada slid around Mauer to avoid a tag. Montague called Posada out, but replays showed Posada avoided the tag and got his hand in to tag home plate. The run would have tied the game at two. Posada and Torre briefly argued, but the ruling by Montague stood.

The Yankees threatened once more in the top of the eighth when Posada was walked by Juan Rincon who replaced Baker to start the inning. Cano singled putting runners at first and second. However, Bernie Williams hit into a 4-6-3 double play, and Johnny Damon grounded to first to end the threat.

In the meantime, the Twins scored a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth to make the score 5-1 where it stayed.

Mussina pitched well enough to win, but was abandoned by his offense. The Yankees only had one multi-base hit in the game; Damon’s double in the third. Clean up hitter Alex Rodriguez went 0-4 with two strike outs.

The road for the Yankees doesn’t get any easier as they go up against 2004 Cy Young award winner Johan Santana (0-2, 5.73) on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. EDT. The Yankees counter with Jaret Wright (0-1, 4.50) who is making his first start of the year.

Notes: Randy Johnson, who left after the fifth inning and 87 pitches due to fatigue in last Thursday’s game against the Kansas City Royals is expected to make his next start Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays.



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