The New York Yankees lose a tough one in Minnesota

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Minnesota Twins by the score of 5-4 on Tuesday night. The game took place at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Phil Hughes started for the Yankees and pitched well, Boone Logan did not and blew the game. The Yankees offense wasn’t great but Martin and Swisher each hit a homerun. Esmerling Vasquez started for the Twins and pitched well and their bullpen did pretty well. The Twins offense was led by Ryan Doumit. 
Hughes pitched 6 2/3 innings losing his 13^th game of the season but he deserved better. He gave up six hits and four runs with a walk and four strikeouts. He left with a 3-1 lead though and Boone Logan pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run with a walk. He was at 99 pitches when he left and a lot of people second guessed manager Joe Girardi on this one. Derek Lowe pitched a perfect inning. Vasquez pitched six innings giving up seven hits and two runs with a walk and five strikeouts. Casey Fien won his second game of the season pitching an inning giving up a hit and a run, Jared Burton pitched an inning giving up a walk and striking out one and Glen Perkins pitched an inning giving up a hit and a run with two strikeouts.

Derek Jeter had a hit to extend his hitting streak to 19 games. Ichiro Suzuki had a hit, Robinson Cano had three hits and drew a walk and Swisher had a hit and two RBI. Russell Martin had two hits and an RBI, Raul Ibanez drew a walk and Andruw Jones had a hit and an RBI. Swisher, Martin and Jones each hit a homerun. The Yankees were 0-1 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Suzuki and Martin were caught stealing.

Denard Span had a hit and two RBI, Ben Revere drew a walk and Mauer had three hits and an RBI. Doumit had two hits, Parmalee had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk and Jamey Carroll had a hit. Parmalee and Span each hit a double. The Twins were 3-9 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base.

Swisher hit a two run homerun in the fourth to make it 2-0 Yankees. The Twins made it 2-1 in the fourth on a Parmalee RBI double. Martin hit a solo homerun in the seventh to extend the lead to 3-1. In the bottom of the seventh Logan threw a wild pitch to score a run and make it 3-2 and Span hit a two run double making it 4-3 Twins. Mauer hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 5-3 and Jones hit a solo homerun in the ninth to make it 5-4 and that was the final score.

The two teams have split the first two games of this three game series. They will play the rubber game on Wednesday afternoon. The Yankees record fell to 89-65 and the Twins record improved to 65-90. The Yankees remain 1 ½ games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the AL East and two games in the loss column.