Yankees 6, Twins 5: Brian Roberts has his best game of the season

A night after snapping a five-game losing streak by scoring seven runs against former Yankee Phil Hughes, and Bombers and Twins took the field on Friday afternoon for their second Fourth of July matchup against each other in as many years.

The Yankees jumped all over Twins starter Kyle Gibson early in the game, scoring six runs in the first two innings. The Yanks, throughout the game, were ripping extra-base hits all around the park. Brett Gardner kicked off the game with a triple to left, then Brian Roberts doubled him home to put the Yankees up 1-0. After Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out, moving Roberts to third base, Mark Teixeira double to deep center field, scoring Robert easily to make it a 2-0 game. Teixeira moved to third on a past ball, then scored on a sac-fly by Carlos Beltran for the third run of the inning.

Brian Dozier put the Twins on the board with a lead off homerun in the bottom half of the 1st inning against Chase Whitley, who also gave up a single and a walk in the inning before get third out.

Francisco Cervelli opened up a three-run 2nd inning for the Yankees with a double into the left field corner. Kelly Johnson grounded out to move Cervelli over to third, then Brendan Ryan hit a sac-fly to bring home Cervelli, extending the Yankees' lead to 4-1. Brett Gardner followed with a walk, moved to third on a ground-rule double by Roberts, who had one helluva game at the plate, batting second in place of Derek Jeter, who got the day off. Roberts doubled three times, with also his fourth triple of the season. It should also be noted that Roberts was wearing high socks today, so maybe he should do that more often.

Ellsbury followed up with single that brought home both runners to put the Yankees up 6-1.

Again in the 2nd inning, Chris Colabello started the frame with a solo blast off of Whitley to put the Twins with four, making it a 6-2 games. Whitley worked around a pair of infield singles in the 2nd but only made through one more inning after giving up two runs in the 3rd.

After Kendrys Morales hit a one-out single to right, Oswaldo Arcia tripled to deep center field, scoring Morales. A batter later, Trevor Plouffe singled to put the Twins down by just two runs.

Whitley was done after 74 pitches in just three innings of work. He's been hit around hard in his past few starts, giving up four runs on eight hits in this one, with his ERA inflating up to 5.14. Even worse, the Yankees have no options to replace him without making a trade -- and don't say Adam Warren.

David Huff took over to start the 4th inning, and he tossed his best outing of the bullpen since joining the Yankees this season for the second time in his career. He pitches three perfect inning, striking out three on just 35 pitches. Warren faced three batters in the 7th, record two outs before giving the ball to Dellin Betances, who finished off the 7th, then pitched the entire 8th inning, giving up a run that brought the Twins within a run, making it a 6-5 game.

David Robertson pitched the 9th inning, striking out the side around a two-out double by Kurt Suzuki to seal the Yankees' second consecutive victory and his 20th save of the season.

The Yankees are back ot being above .500, and will try to go two games over on Saturday afternoon with David Phelps on the mound against Yohan Pino at 2:05 pm ET.

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