Text size:

Yankees continue to roll after All-Star break, routing Twins

By The Associated Press

6:02 AM EDT, July 23, 2008

The way New York has been playing lately, the All-Star game might not be the last marquee event at Yankee Stadium. Bobby Abreu hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning and drove in three runs, leading the surging Yankees past the Minnesota Twins 8-2 on Tuesday night, their ninth consecutive victory at home.

"We're playing great right now," said Robinson Cano, who is hitting .522 since the All-Star break. "We're doing our job with men on base better than the first half."

Cano had two RBI singles in the win.

The home winning streak is New York's longest since a nine-game run in May 2005.

"You've got to take advantage of being at home," manager Joe Girardi said. "The most important thing to me is that we're playing better."

The Yankees (55-45) reached 10 games over .500 for the first time this year. They moved within 3½ games of first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East, the closest they've been to first since May 14.

Minnesota, which is 1½ games behind first-place Chicago in the AL Central, dropped to 3-18 at Yankee Stadium since the start of the 2002 season. The Twins (55-45) have lost seven straight series in the Bronx.

In other AL games, it was: Oakland 8, Tampa Bay 1; Chicago 10, Texas 2; Toronto 10, Baltimore 8; Boston 4, Seattle 2; Los Angeles 3, Cleveland 2, and Detroit 7, Kansas City 1.

New York's bullpen came through again after Darrell Rasner was pulled in the sixth. David Robertson (2-0) relieved Rasner with runners at the corners in the sixth and retired Delmon Young on one pitch to keep New York's deficit at 2-1.

Jose Veras pitched a scoreless seventh, Kyle Farnsworth struck out three in a hitless eighth and Dan Giese finished.

The Yankees relievers have a 1.60 ERA over the past 21 games.

"The bullpen's been incredible," Rasner said. "Some things are coming together."

At St. Petersburg, Fla., Dallas Braden allowed one run over five innings and Jack Hannahan hit a three-run homer as Oakland ended a six-game losing streak with a win over Tampa Bay.

Braden (2-0) gave up four hits, walked four and struck out one. Braden was making his first start of the season, replacing Joe Blanton, who was traded to Philadelphia last Thursday.

Hannahan put the Athletics ahead 3-1 in the fourth with his homer off Andy Sonnanstine (10-5).

The Rays, who are in first place in the AL East, dropped to 39-16 at home this season. Tampa Bay has lost nine of 12 overall.

At Chicago, Mark Buehrle pitched 7 1-3 innings and Alexei Ramirez hit the first grand slam of his career for Chicago.

Nick Swisher hit a three-run homer, Jermaine Dye had three hits and Jim Thome reached base four times as the White Sox snapped a three-game losing streak.

Pitching on three days' rest so he could attend his grandfather's funeral in Missouri, Buehrle (8-8) gave up a leadoff triple to Hank Blalock in the second and then retired 15 of the next 16 batters.

Buehrle's last start against the Rangers was his no-hitter on April 18, 2007. He allowed one run, six hits and no walks.

E-mail

Single page

Yankees continue to roll after All-Star break, routing Twins

Popular stories

Special Packages

Recent Multimedia

My Long Island