Yankees Go For An Independence Day Sweep

CC Sabathia put in his usual grinding, workhorse effort last night against the Twins, giving up two runs over seven innings en route to the 200th victory of his career.

Robbie Cano continued to tear the cover off of the ball, collecting a pair of hits including a game-tying two-run double in the in the 6th inning, when Twins manager Ron Gardenhire decided to pitch to the streaking slugger with first base open.

Independence Day lineup, 2:10 EST @ Target Field:

Ichiro 8
Almonte 7
Cano 4
Hafner DH
Wells 9
Overbay 3
Cruz 6
Gonzalez 5
Romine 2
Phelps 1

Pitching Preview:

David Phelps would really like to forget his last outing in which he couldn't make it past the 3rd innings, allowing nine earned runs in 2 1/3 innings against the Orioles last Saturday.

"Regardless of what point in the game you come out, if you give up nine runs, it's going to be agonizing," Phelps said of his performance vs. Baltimore. "Knowing you went out and didn't really give the team a chance to win is probably the worst part of it."

Other than that one start, Phelps had put together a pretty good month of June, going 2-1 with a 2.66 ERA in his four other outings. In three career starts against AL Central opponents, Phelps is 1-2 with a 1.62 ERA.

Minnesota will try to salvage the final game of the series when they send out rookie starter Kyle Gibson, who will be making only second big league start. Gibson made his Major League debut on Saturday against the Royals, allowing two runs on eight hits in six innings while striking out five.

"I thought he handled it well," Twins manager Terry Ryan said. "A lot of attention. Certainly, expectations were high. He handled the pace well. He threw strikes, kept the game moving and, most important, we won that baseball game. We're not looking for moral victories. We want to win the game."

Yankee Notes:

* Alex Rodriguez played in his second rehab game last night for the Single-A Charleston RiverDogs, going 0-for-2 with a pair of groundouts. and didn't get anything hit his way at third base.

 A-Rod swung at the first pitch of his first at-bat and hit a high chopper to the first baseman, who fielded the ball and toss it to the pitcher covering first to retire Rodriguez.

In his second at-bat, he fell behind in the count, 1-2, then on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, he grounded out to the second baseman to end the inning and his night.

"It was nice to make contact, and it's a work in progress," he said. "If I can save all of my hits until New York, I am fine with that."

A-Rod will now spend Thursday working out in Charleston, then is heading back to Florida on Friday to join the Single-A Tampa Yankees on their current road trip in Lakeland, Florida. He'll play with Tampa on Friday and Saturday, then will take Sunday off. After that, the Yankees will plan his next move.

* Eduardo Nunez was also with A-Rod in Charleston to rehab as well, going 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored on Wednesday and was 2-for-3 on Tuesday, going 2-for-5 in his two games for the RiverDogs.

Nunez will join the Double-A Trenton Thunder tonight for the next stage of his rehab. Yesterday, he told reporters that he hopes to return the the big league Yankees before the All-Star Break.

Happy 4th of July! Follow @GavinEwbank2013 on Twitter.