Sabathia Aims To A Capture Series Win

With 17 runs in the first two games of the series, the Yankees will look to continue their offensive tear in Minnesota when they aim to capture their first series win since early May against the Seattle Mariners.

Robinson Cano continued his hot hitting last night with a three-run homerun in the 7th, his 4th homerun in three games. Alberto Gonzalez also had himself a good night, collecting a pair of hits and three RBI's in the Yankees 7-3 win. Cano is 5-for-8 against Minnesota with three home runs, six RBIs and five runs through the first two games, and is batting .571 on the current road trip.

"You know how much damage he can do, and he can get really, really hot," manager Joe Girardi said. "You look at the last four or five days, he's swung the bat really well. You want that really hot streak to go a long time. It's comforting."

Phil Hughes turned in his second straight solid outing, tossing seven innings of one run ball, permitting six hits, walking two and striking out three on 114 pitches.

Tonight's Lineup, 8:10 EST @ Target Field:

Gardner 8
Suzuki 9
Cano 4
Hafner DH
Almonte 7
Overbay 3
Stewart 2
Cruz 6
Adams 5
Sabathia 1

Pitching Preview:

CC Sabathia will try to follow up Hughes' win worthy outing, while also trying to rebound from a disappointing loss against the Baltimore Orioles last Friday night. He took a no-hitter into the 6th innings, but blew a 3-0 lead in the 6th inning, an eventually gave up a go-ahead homerun to Nate McLouth in the 7th.

"I feel like I'm wasting starts," Sabathia said after the loss in Baltimore. "I'm feeling great and throwing the ball good. I've just not been able to put together a whole start. It's just frustrating."

He'll also be looking to flip the page on June after having a fairly rough month, giving up at least four or more runs in four of his five starts, tallying up a 5.11 ERA for the month.

Minnesota will try to save the series with their right-hander P.J. Walters. Walters has given up six runs in each of his past two starts, and couldn't make it past two outs in the first inning in a loss to Cleveland on June 22nd and three only went innings in a loss to the Royals on Friday.

"That's two in a row where I hadn't done my job," Walters said on Friday. "Falling behind, obviously, last week it was walking guys, today it was falling behind and giving up hits. Either way it was two bad ones in a row. I've got to come back and straighten some things out."

Yankee notes:

* Jayson Nix missed yesterday's with a sore hamstring that the Yankees considered a day-to-day thing, but MRI results came back today showing that the back-up to Jeter's back-up is suffering with a Grade 2 strain in his right hamstring, forcing the utility man to the 15-Day DL.

* With Nix going to the DL, the Yankee went out and signed free-agent infielder Luis Cruz to a minor-league deal. Cruz his .127 with one homerun and six RBI's in 45 games with the Dodgers before electing free-agency on Tuesday. He'll be batting 8th and playing shortstop in his first game as a Yankee.

* Sabathia will be taking another shot at earning the 200th victory in his career. He'd be the 4th active pitcher with 200+ wins (Pettitte, Halladay, Hudson). The last to do so was Tim Hudson earlier this year.

Enjoy the game. Don't get hurt. Follow @GavinEwbank2013 on Twitter.