Yankees win and MO breaks the all-time saves record

The New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins 6-4 on Monday afternoon. It was a makeup game from an earlier rain out. The Yankees seemed to be on the road forever as they had a long and tough road trip. A.J. Burnett started this game and didn’t pitch very well. He was staked to a big lead and still couldn’t qualify for the win. The bullpen did it’s usual good job. The offense was good on this day.
Burnett pitched four innings giving up nine hits and four runs with one walk and eight strikeouts. Cory Wade who earned the win pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up three hits and a walk and he struck out two. Wade is now 6-1 on the season. Boone Logan faced one batter and retired him, Rafael Soriano pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout and Dave Robertson pitched a perfect inning. Rivera pitched a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout to record his 43rd save of the season and also to earn the all-time major league baseball saves record. He now stands alone on top of the mountain with 602 saves and he has more to come. Rivera didn’t need validation but now he is officially the best there ever was.

Derek Jeter had three hits and a walk, Curtis Granderson had a hit, two RBI and a walk and Mark Teixeira had two hits. Alex Rodriguez had a hit, RBI and a walk, Robinson Cano had two hits an RBI and two walks and Nick Swisher had two hits and an RBI. Andruw Jones had a hit, Brett Gardner had a hit and Jesus Montero had a hit. Russell Martin had a hit, RBI and a walk. Jones and Jeter each had a double, Cano had a triple and Granderson had a homerun. The Yankees were 3-13 with runners in scoring position and they left 12 men on base. Martin had a throwing error.

The Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a two run homerun by Granderson in the first inning. In the second Martin had an RBI single to make it 3-0 Yankees and in the third Cano had an RBI triple and Swisher an RBI single to make it 5-0. The Twins got on the board in the fourth inning. Chris Parmelee hit a solo homerun to make it 5-1. Michael Cuddyer hit a two run homerun in the fifth to make it a 5-3 game. Luke Hughes grounded out to score another run and pull the Twins to within 5-4. In the sixth Rodriguez had an RBI single to make it 6-4 and that would complete the scoring in the game.

The Yankees are off to a good start in their eight game final homestand of the season. This was a one game makeup from a rained out game in April. The Yankees will begin a four game series with the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night. The Boston Red Sox lost game one of a doubleheader on Monday afternoon and the Yankees are 5 ½ games up in the AL East. They have a magic number of three to clinch a playoff spot and five for the division title. The Yankees now have accomplished getting Rivera the record and they want to clinch as fast as possible now. The Yankees only have to win a couple of games against Tampa Bay and they will clinch a postseason berth. It depends on what Boston does but if they win a couple against Tampa, they may only need to win one against Boston to clinch the division title but will most likely clinch it against them at home. The Yankees would like to get that done and then be able to rest some guys and get their rotation set up for the first round of the playoffs. The playoffs will begin on Friday September 30th.