Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4: Ichiro's 1st homerun of the year gives Yanks 17th straight home win over Toronto

The Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays met up in the Bronx on Friday night for the opener of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium. Both teams were playing well coming into the game, but it was the Yankees, after falling behind early, that battled back to beat the Jays, 6-4, to improve to 7-1 since the All-Star break.

Jose Bautista did all of the heavy lifting for the Blue Jays, driving in all four of their runs on a pair of homeruns. The first, in the 1st, put the Jays up 3-0. Jose Reyes lead off the game with a bloop single into center field, then two batters later, Melky Cabrera singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Then Hiroki Kuroda hung a pitch to Bautista, and he made him pay by sending it far into the left field seats; not a cheap shot, as they'd say.

Facing left-hander Mark Buehrle, who hadn't won since June 1 and has also never been successful against the Bombers in his career, the Yankees closed the gap by putting up a pair of runs in the bottom half of the 2nd.

Brian McCann and Chase Headley opened the inning with back-to-back singles, then Buehrle walked Ichiro Suzuki to load the bases with nobody out. Brian Roberts put the Yanks on the board by beating out an infield single, scoring McCann. After Francisco Cervelli, who collected a pair of hits in the game, struck out, Brett Gardner made it a one-run game with a sac-fly into the right-center field gap.

The Blue Jays, or should I say Bautista, was quick to respond in the top of the 4th inning, hitting a solo blast off of Kuroda -- his 20th of the season -- to extend Toronto's lead to 4-2.

The 28-pitch 1st inning really hurt Kuroda, forcing Joe Girardi to pull him from the game with two outs in the 6th. Other than David Phelps' five inning complete-game on Wednesday, I believe that Kuroda is the first Yankee starter to go less than six innings since the All-Star break. He ended up with 94 pitches, giving up the four Bautista RBIs on eight hits, while walking one and striking out three.

The Yankees took a 6-4 lead in the 3rd inning with a four-run frame against Buehrle. Carlos Beltran hit a one-out solo homerun, his 11th of the year, into the left field seats to make it a 4-3 game. McCann and Headley followed with back-to-back singles, then Ichiro pulled off the biggest plot twist of the night, hitting his first homerun of the season, a three-run shot that put the Yankees up by two runs to cap off the early comeback.

Buehrle, in case you were wondering, didn't make it past the 3rd inning. John Gibbons went to his bullpen in just the 4th inning. Buehrle was charged with six runs in nine hits, with a walk and two strikeouts.

It took David Huff just seven pitches to both record the final out of the 6th inning after replacing Kuroda, and then getting the first two outs of the 7th before handing the ball to Shawn Kelley, who needed six pitches to retire Dan Johnson for the final out of the inning.

Bautista hit a one-out double off the glove of Roberts in center field -- he was running backwards for the ball and it hit off of his glove while going for the over-the-shoulder grab -- but that was the only bad mark of a scoreless 8th inning by Dellin Betances.

Then David Robertson came on in the 9th, and he struck out two of the four hitters he faced to lock down his second save in as many days -- 26th of the year. Man, he and Betances could make a very deadly combo in the 8th and 9th for many years down the road. The Yankees first need to give Robertson the contract extension that he desperately deserves.

Chris Capuano will make his Yankees debut on Saturday, starting in place of Chase Whitley, who was moved into the bullpen on Friday. He'll be going up against RHP Drew Hutchinson at 1:05 pm ET.

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Spring Training notebook: Day 5

TAMPA, Fla. -- Everyone expect the batboy gathered in a room in Tampa today to listen to Derek Jeter talk about his retirement after this season. But that wasn't all that happened at Yankees camp. Ichiro Suzuki talked about fighting for a roster spot, position players officially reported, and more.

Jeter: "The time is right:" Ever since announcing last week his plans to retire after the season, reporters had been dying to ask the question, "why now, Jeter?" We finally got what we were looking for.

"I felt as though this was the right time," Jeter said. "I've been doing this for a long time; this will be parts of 20 seasons that I've been playing here in New York and parts of 23 if you count the Minor Leagues. I just think I've done it long enough and I look forward to doing some other things in my life. But I can't reiterate enough that we still have a season to play.”

Jeter said that his decision to retire had nothing to do with how he feels physically. He said that his ankle and the rest of his body are feeling great.

He added that player baseball has now become a job for him, especially after last season in which he played just 17 games because of various injuries. But Jeter said that he worked very hard this offseason, and expects to be the everyday shortstop this season.

“It’s all about the time. You can't do this forever," Jeter said. "I’d like to, but you can't do it forever. I feel as though the time is right after this year. There’s other things I want to do."

Ichiro making the best of his situation: After bringing in outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran this offseason, the Yankees gave themselves a backload of outfielders on the roster. Since then, Vernon Wells has been released, and Ichiro could be the next one to be moved.

Ellsbury, Beltran and Brett Gardner are going to be the three main outfielders, with Alfonso Soriano serving as the DH and fourth outfielder. Ichiro, however, doesn't really have any roles that we know of.

We can assume that he'll be the fifth outfielder, and come into games late as a pinch-runners, because he can still offer some speed in the bases.

“This is a place where the greatest players gather and play, so I'm really excited to play with those guys,” Ichiro said. “Obviously with the additions, I’m going to have to find a place for myself, but I worked hard this offseason. I worked on a lot of things, and throughout spring training, hopefully those things will come together and we'll see where it goes from there.”

Any thoughts about being released or traded?

“When you're here with the Yankees, you tend to think about those things,” he said. “You just never know with the great players coming here. I thought about a lot of things, which a lot of players do.”

Ichiro said that he has done everything that he can handle by coming to camp in shape, an is going to see how the rest plays out.

He also had something to say about Jeter retiring.

"I was really shocked, as I think were a lot of people." he said. "I didn't want to believe it. But I was actually shocked that he was doing Facebook. That's something that I was really shocked about."

Nunie shows up, plays the field: Eduardo Nunez arrived to camp today and spent a lot of time taking groundballs at both third base and shortstop, two positions that he is going to be competing for this spring. It would be great if Nunez finally plays to his full potential and wins a job at third base, as or just another reserve infielder.

Banuelos throws live BP: Manny Banuelos threw his first live batting practice session today. He had been throwing simulated games late last season, but today was his first in camp.

“Good, good, feels pretty good,” he said. “All my pitches worked. Velocity is good. I didn't throw, like, 100 percent because it was the first time, but it feels pretty good. … I’m happy man. It feels strong, feels good.”

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog, and you can follow him on Twitter (below).

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What will Ichiro's role be with the Yankees this season?

The Yankees locked Ichiro Suzuki up on a two-year contract last winter, leaving them stuck with him for one year too many. Last year was one of his worst in professional baseball, and it would be easy to see this being his last season before retiring -- that's far from a guarantee, though.

After signing Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran this winter, the Yankees have given themselves more than enough outfielders heading into spring training.

They've already released Vernon Wells after designating him for assignment back in January, and it could be possible that Ichiro is the next outfielder the Yankees move.

But for now, however, Ichiro is still on the Yankee's roster, and they're still in line to pay him the $6.5 million they owe him in 2014.

Even this late in his career, at 40-years-old this season, Ichiro can give the Yankees some speed on the bases, some slap hits into the gap here and there, and he'll stay on the field for the full season -- he's never played less than 140 games in a season since coming to the MLB from Japan.

Having been very durable and always in the lineup, Ichiro shouldn't be able to expect that same kind of playing time in 2014.

If you're looking at the depth chart, it won't be hard to see Ichiro at the bottom of the outfield list, coming in behind Beltran, Ellsbury, Brett Gardner and Alfonso Soriano. And because of that, I just don't see him fitting into Joe Girardi's game plan each day.

Like I said above, Ichiro will be able to pinch-run off of the bench, and could even be a late-game option at the plate for Girardi if he's looking to send an experience hitter at the plate -- and Ichiro has more than enough experience with the bat.

I'm not saying that Ichiro won't get in at least 100 games this season, because he can still help the team (not as much as he could five years ago) in a few ways. But it would be more reasonable to expect him at least 120-130 games, not the 150 that he's been averaging in the Major Leagues.

Right now, the Opening Day lineup projects to have Gardner in left, Ellsbury in center, and Beltran in right. Soriano will act as the fourth outfielder and spend most of his time as the DH, cycling though that position with Beltran and Derek Jeter, two players near the end of their careers that will certainly need a break from the field a couple times a week.

It would not surprise me at all if the Yankees were to move him before heading to Houston for Opening Day, possibly trying to trade him for a another bullpen arm. Should he stay with the team through the first few months, though, you can expect a much lesser bench role for Ichiro. He'll likely be the fifth outfielder, if the Yanks even decide to carry that many.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog, and you can follow him on Twitter (below).

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Yankees could target deal with D-Backs for J.J. Putz

The Yankees have a few more moves they need to make before gathering in Tampa for Spring Training in mid-February, and their to-do list still includes acquiring another bullpen arm after losing to the Detroit Tigers and Mariano Rivera, who retired this offseason.

As FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal points out, the Arizona Diamondbacks might be willing to trade reliever J.J. Putz after the team's recent addition of former Chicago White Sox closer Addison Reed.

Putz is owed $7 million next season, and Rosenthal says they would likely need to make a move that brings them something worth, or near, Putz's value in 2014, and the Yankees' Ichiro Suzuki could be a good fit, assuming the Yankees want to trade Ichiro, and if he's willing to accept a lesser role in Arizona.

A trade like that between the teams would make quite a lot of sense. The D-Backs could be looking to add another outfielder after trading away Adam Eaton, and the Yanks would be able to patch up one of their bullpen openings by adding the 37-year-old Putz. He was the 20th best reliever over the past three seasons in terms of WAR (Wins Above Replacement) with a 3.2. But 2013 wasn't a great year for him, with a War of 0.1.

The Yankees' trade for Ichiro a couple years ago was worth it at the time, but signing him to a two-year deal last offseason was too much. Ichiro had a terrible 2013 season, hitting .262/.297/.342, the worst batting average of his major league career. And now they could be stuck with him for noe more season.

If the Yankees kept him for the upcoming season, he'd most likely be the team's fifth outfielder behind Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Carlos Beltran and Alfonso Soriano.

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Soriano A Late Scratch In The Yanks Lineup

About 10 minutes before the Yankees and Red Sox began play on Saturday, the Yanks announced that Alfonso Soriano, originally penciled in as the No. 4 hitter and playing left field, was scratched from the lineup because of a sprained right thumb.

Soriano hurt his thumb while diving for a ball in Baltimore this past week, and it's been bothering him ever since. He had been able to play through it, but decided not to give it a go after going through batting practice this morning.

Since coming over to the Yankees in late-July, he's been arguably their best hitter, as he has more homeruns (15) and RBIs (47) than any other major league hitter over that span.

In the new lineup, Vernon Wells was moved from right to left field, while Girardi added Ichiro to the lineup as the Bombers face LHP Jon Lester.

With Brett Gardner going on the DL for possibly the remainder of the season a couple of days ago in Baltimore  just a couple of days after Derek Jeter went back on the DL -- the possibility of losing Alfonso Soriano for the rest of the season could easily end any hopes that Yankees had of making the playoffs.

While Soriano overall batting average this season is just .253, he's been having a great season, not just with the Yankees, but also combined with the Chicago Cubs, hitting 32 homeruns with 98 RBIs.

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Gardner Leaves Game With Oblique Strain

Move over, Derek Jeter, Jayson Nix, Kevin Youkilis, David Phelps, Michael Pineda, and every other Yankee on the disabled list this season, another player is likely to be joining to list.

Yankees OF Brett Gardner left Thursday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles in the first inning because of a left oblique strain. Gardner struck out in his first at-bat of the game, and walked straight to the clubhouse from the batters box.

As of now, Gardner is considered day-to-day, but the problem with oblique strains is that they're tricky to deal with. It's usually an injury that could last for a few weeks. If it doesn't heal quick, Gardner's season is likely to be over.

For the Yankees to lose Gardner would be a serious blow to their playoff chase, as Gardner has been a strong bat of the top of the Yankees lineup. With a .344 on-base percentage, he hit .273 with 8 homeruns on 52 RBIs this season for the Bombers.

This has easily been Gardner's best season since debuting in the majors, as he had set new career-highs in hits, doubles, triples, homeruns and RBIs.

He was replaced in center field by Curtis Granderson, who is now expected to take over the role as the Yankees everyday center field, while also sharing time with Ichiro.

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Nova Tosses Three-Hit, Complete-Game Shutout In Yanks 2-0 Win

As the New York Yankees attempt to make a run at the postseason, they've needed their starting pitchers to set up, as guys like CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda has been doing to opposite of helping the Yanks win games lately.

Coming off Friday night's 8-5 win, all they needed was another good effort from Ivan Nova to help sling them by the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card standings.

They got everything they could have asked for and more from Nova, as he pitched one of his best outings of the year, tossing a complete game, three-hit shutout, the first of his career, in the Yankees 2-0 victory over the O's Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

"Unbelievable. It's unbelievable," Nova said. "I feel really good, because I'm giving my team a chance to win every time I go out there."

If you're a fan of offense, then this game wasn't for you, as both teams didn't have much to do with the bats, because of great pitching by both Nova and Baltimore's starter Scott Feldman.

With only two runs being scored in the game, it was a pitchers duel all the way. And the only player doing the damage on offense with the Yankees all-star second baseman, Robinson Cano. Cano put the Yanks on the board in the first with an RBI double to right field.

Then it wasn't until later in the game, with the Yankees still holding a 1-0 lead, needing insurance runs badly, Cano launched a solo homerun to right field, his 25th of the season, to put the Yanks up 2-0 in the 8th. As the calendar turns to September, Cano will be leaving behind his .370 August batting average.

"You could see early in the season everything was away and they made me chase pitches," Cano said. "Now it's a big difference. [Alfonso] Soriano has, what, 12 home runs and [35] RBIs [as a Yankee]? That's the last guy you want to face."

While it might not have seemed like much, two runs of support was all Nova needed, giving up just two hits, while walking only one and striking out five O's hitters. He was dominating from the start, putting hitters away with ease all afternoon long.

"He has a power curve. Didn't make many mistakes up with it at all. Stayed in the strike zone a long time, then left the strike zone," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "It's very easy to sit in the dugout or the stands and say, 'Why aren't we doing [more]?' The guy's got a 2.9-something ERA in the American League East. It's impressive."

Entering the 9th inning with 89 pitches, Nate McLouth opened the inning with an infield single off Nova's glove, but he was able to bound back and retire the next three hitters -- Manny Machado, Chris Davis and Adam Jones -- to finish off the victory.

One of the closest call in the game with Davis' flyout to right-field in the 9th. Davis, the Major League's homerun leader, lifted a flyball to the warning track in right. As Ichiro went back for the ball, he forced the entire stadium to hold it's breath as he made it seems like the ball was going to get out.

"Anytime a guy gets a ball in the air, you always hold your breath. Especially here, in that part of the park, anything can go out," catcher Chris Stewart said. "He didn't get enough of it, the ball stayed in the yard, and that's a big play for us."

When asked after the game if he knew that he was going to catch Davis' flyball, Ichiro responded in English, saying, "Absolutely."

"I was just having fun," Ichiro said. "The result is the most important. If you look like you're going to get it and it goes over the fence, obviously the fans wouldn't be excited about it. But if the fans thought 'Oh, no,' then you make the play -- humans want to come from a bad place to a good place."

With the win, the Yankees move ahead of the Orioles in the Wild Card standings, trailing now only the Tampa Bay Rays and the Oakland Athletics for the moment, sitting four-games behind Tampa with still 27 games left to play.

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Ichiro Get's No. 4,000, Yanks Win On Soriano's Late Homerun

Prior to tonight, only two players in baseball history had collected 4,000 career hits. Ichiro Suzuki is now the third player to reach that feat.

Ichiro came into the game with 3,999 hits, and lined a single to left field in his first at-bat of the game, in classic Ichiro style, shooting the ball to left field past a diving Brett Lawrie at third base.

In a surreal moment, the entire New York Yankees dugout flooded out onto the field to congratulate Ichiro on his accomplishment. The hit also moved him past a man named Lou Gehrig on the all-time hits list.

"It was supposed to be a number that was special to me, but what happened tonight, I wasn't expecting," said Ichiro.

"When my teammates came out to first base, that was very special. The fans, I wasn't expecting so much joy and happiness from them. That's what made it very special tonight; not just the number, but all the things that came with it were very special."

To the game, Adam Warren got the start for the Yankees, making just the second start of his Major League career. His stuff looked good early, but putting away the final out of the inning seemed to be an issue.

Warren gave up the first run of the game in the top of the second inning on an RBI single to right field by Anthony Gose. Ichiro came up firing from right, but the throw one-hopped over the glove of Austin Romine at the plate, taking away any play at the plate.

Romine would come back to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning, missing a three-run homerun by a matter of feet, but with the ball caught at the wall, Eduardo Nunez tagged and scored from third base.

Curtis Granderson put the Yankees in the lead in the 4th inning on an RBI single to right field after Robinson Cano doubled, scoring from second on the base hit.

Josh Thole lead off the 4th inning with a homerun off Warren, who was taken out a couple pitches later after only 61 pitches. Warren was on a 75-pitch limit coming into the game, and throwing a lot of pitches early in the game forced Yankees manager Joe Girardi to pull him after 3 plus innings.

"The biggest thing was just try to go as long as I could," Warren said. "I really wasn't sure how long I could go, but I just tried to go as long as I could and give the team a chance to win."

David Huff took over from there, and from there, he literally took over the game. Huff gave the Yankees five very solid innings, giving up only  one hit, while walking four and striking out two on 70 pitches.

"We've had to use our bullpen a lot, so it was really important for our guys," Girardi said. "Three or four guys got a night off, which was important moving forward. Just an outstanding performance by Huff."

With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning, Cano ripped a two-out single into right field, then Alfonso Soriano, who was 0-for-17 coming into the at-bat, launched a go-ahead, two-run homerun off R.A. Dickey to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead.

"I said, 'This is the chance now to do something impressive,'" said Soriano. "Every game is very important for us. I just wanted to see a good one and make a good swing, and that's what happened. He threw me a good one and I made a good swing."

Mariano Rivera entered the game in the 9th inning, and after giving up a one-out double to Rajai Davis, Rivera picked off Davis at second base for the second out of the 9th, then struck out Edwin Encarnacion looking to end the ballgame.

Huff picked up the win, Mariano took home the save, and overall, the Yankees have won four in a row, and 10 of the last 14 games, as well as 12 straight against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

"It's great. It's a long season," Soriano said. "Sometimes we have a bad week or two weeks, but we come back from that. I think the lineup we have now is very strong, and I hope the offense keeps producing like we're producing right now."

In the second inning, Jayson Nix took a knuckleball from Dickey off his left hand. He would leave the game immediately after, and x-rays would show that he suffered a fracture on that left hand. You can click here for the full story.

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Warren Get's Spot Start, Ichiro Goes For 4,000 Hits

Whether it's because Alex Rodriguez is back in the lineup or not, the New York Yankees are playing very good baseball right now. Winners of three in a row, and 9 of their last 12 games, the Yankees are suddenly looking like a team that could compete for the second wild card spot.

The Yanks are coming off a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, in which they came away with a pair of victories, winning game one thanks to a go-ahead three-run homerun by Chris Stewart, and a walk-off single by Jayson Nix in the nightcap.

With two games down and two more to go in this four-game set, the Yankees will get another chance on Wednesday to continue to build their case for a string playoff run down the stretch in September.

"I think we're kind of creeping [in the standings] a little bit, but we've got a long way to go, we've got a lot of games," Nix said Tuesday. "I think each game is very important, and we know that."

Coming into the game, Ichiro is needing only one more hit to reach the 4,000 plateau, and become only the third player all-time to reach the historic mark. After getting to 3,999 in game one yesterday, he sat out game two, not getting a chance to collect one more hit.

It's not just the 4,000; it's that you're getting a hit in a game," Ichiro said Tuesday. "If you don't produce, you're not going to play in games. Producing in games is what's good for me. Four thousand is just as important as any other number, for me."

Tonight's Lineup vs Toronto:

Gardner DH
Ichiro RF
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Granderson CF
Nunez SS
Overbay 1B
Nix 3B
Romine C
Warren RHP

Pitching Preview:

Tuesday's doubleheader used up Ivan Nova and Phil Hughes, so in an attempt to save the arms in the rotation, Yankees manager Joe Girardi will call on Adam Warren for the spot start tonight against the Blue Jays.

Used a the Yankees long-relief arm out of the bullpen for most of the season, Warren hasn't taken the mound as a starter for the Bombers yet this season. Tonight will mark only the second starting his Major League career, with the first coming against the Chicago White Sox on June 29th of last season.

Warren didn't fare out too well in that only start last year, as we wound up permitting six runs in just 2 1/3 innings. But as the long-man this year, Warren has proven himself well, with a 3.57 ERA with 46 strikeouts over 58 innings.

Warren and the Yankees will be taking on the 2012 NL Cy Young award winning R.A. Dickey. Dickey was traded to Toronto in a blockbuster deal this past winter, being a move that hasn't exactly panned out for the last place Blue Jays.

The 38-year-old knuckleballer has been nothing like he was with the Mets in 2012, going 9-11 with a 4.49 ERA. His biggest problem this season has been giving up the long ball, as Dickey has served up 27 this year, good for 1.4 homers per nine innings, up from 0.9 in 2012.

Dickey's last start was Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, when he gave up another homerun, permitting four runs in the loss. On the bright side, Dockey has lasted at least seven inning in his last three starts.

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Yanks Lose In A Very Sloppy First-Half Finale

It's been an up and down first half for the Yankees, from the hot start to the sluggish past month. No player on the Yankees has had a more up and down year than CC Sabathia. After back to back solid starts, CC was looking to finish off the first half of the season in style.

Things just didn't go Sabathia's way as he endured one of the worst starts of his season, giving up eight runs, three earned, on eight hits while walking two and striking out five in only four innings. It was the shortest non-injury or rain shortened outing for CC as a Yankee since lasting only 2 2/3 against the Rays on Oct. 2nd, 2009.

"I have to make better pitches to try to help these guys out," said Sabathia. "They've bailed me out of situations all the time. It's frustrating because you didn't help these guys out."

Sabathia started the game with an easy 1-2-3 first inning, but then Minnesota cracked the code in the second, using four hits, all singles, to tag CC with a pair of runs.

After a Justin Morneau double in the third inning, he advanced to third on a Eduardo Nunez throw that pulled Lyle Overbay off the bag at first, that would have ended the inning. Instead, the next batter, Aaron Hicks, took a changeup from Sabathia and put it into the seat in left to make it a 5-0 game.

Things only got worse for the Yankees, trailing 5-1 after an RBI single by Cano in the top half of the inning, Brian Dozier doubled on a ball that bounced past Ichiro and Vernon Wells in right-center field. After Joe Mauer walked to load the bases, Morneau pitted a ball in between a pack of infielders that would fail to make a play.

"It's unusual," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Our defense has been really good this year. For whatever reason, it wasn't today. We made some mistakes and gave them extra outs, and it cost us."

The Twins scored two more runs in the inning on a missed ball by Overbay, prompting Girardi to take Sabathia out of the game after four inning with his pitch count reaching 93.

"This wasn't [good]. It's just one game, though, and we've got four days to kind of get away from it and kind of revive everything," Overbay said.

Girardi gave the ball to Preston Clairborne, who fired off a solid 1-2-3 fifth inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced. Adam Warren followed him with two innings of one-run relief, holding the Twins to only four hits.

The Yankees bats didn't do a whole lot to put them into a position to win, managing three runs through the first four innings off of Twins starter Kyle Gibson, who allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits over five inning of work.

Ichiro broke a long Yankee drought in the 7th inning, homering to right field off of Caleb Thielbar. It was the first homerun by a Yankee not named Cano or Overbay since June 26th. His solo shot pulled the Yankee back within four, making it 8-4.

Minnesota added another run in the 8th off Warren, then Girardi went to Boone Logan, who did a good job of setting down Mauer and Morneau to end the inning.

Yet with all the good the Yankees bullpen was doing, they still couldn't pull off anything offensively, losing to the Twins 10-4 in a very sloppy game from the Yankees. There may have only been two errors on the board, but overall it wasn't a good way to head into the All-Star break.

"It was just one of those games where everything we could do wrong, we did wrong, defensively," Wells said. "That was probably one of the uglier games seen in this stadium, for sure."

With Minnesota taking two of the three games in this series, the Twins walked out of the Bronx with a very well series win against the Yankees, who have now lost five of their last eight games.

"Losing is disappointing, no matter how you do it," Wells said. "The way this game played out, with just how ugly it was, it'll be good to quickly forget about."

The Yankees finished the first half of the season at 51-44, trailing the Red Sox in the AL East by 6.5 games, who the Yankees will meet in Boston to start a three-game series on Friday to open up the second half.

"I think everybody in here knows what we're up against and what we need to do to try to make the playoffs and win this division," Sabathia said. "It's just up to us to come out and play consistent and play the way we can play."

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Nunez Comes Up Big In His Return To The Lineup

After a walk-off win last night, fueled in part by the strong starting performance from Ivan Nova, the Yankees were back at it on Saturday, looking for their 6th straight win. Thanks to a big day from Eduardo Nunez, the Yankees were able take down the Birds for the second straight day.

With Andy Pettitte pitching, trying to turn things around after going 0-3 in his last four starts, the Orioles jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning on two-run homerun from Chris Davis, his major league leading 33rd of the season.

"The pitch, that was where I wanted to," Pettitte said. "I think he thought he hit a fly ball to center. I kind of watched his reaction. But the ball just kept going."

Baltimore extended their lead in the 2nd inning when Alexi Casilla lined a double down the left field line off of Pettitte, scoring Nolan Reimold from 2nd base, giving the O's a 3-0 lead.

But the Yankees, facing Chris Tillman, answered back in the bottom of the 2nd. After Travis Hafner walked to begin the inning, Zoilo Almonte and Lyle Overbay hit back to back single to load the bases with nobody out.

New Yankee Luis Cruz followed with a single into shallow left field bringing home Hafner to put the Yankees on the board. In his first at-bat since May 5th, Nunez hit a fly ball to deep left-center field, giving Almonte enough room to tag up and score.

The O's were at it again the in 4th, when J.J. Hardy double to lead off the inning. After eventually reaching 3rd, he scored on an RBI single by Taylor Teagarden, to put Baltimore back up by two.

Pettitte had not recorded a 1-2-3 inning until the 5th, when he retired the O's on nine pitches in that inning. In the bottom half of the 5th, the Yankees were able to plate two more runs to tie up the ballgame.

Nunez and Stewart lead off with back to back single, then Brett Gardner laid down a bunt to move them over. Ichiro then came up and slapped a ball back up the middle, but a nice diving grab by Casilla kept the ball in the infield and kept another run from scoring.

But it didn't matter because Robinson Cano followed up with a single of his own off of Tillman, that tied the game, and gave Pettitte some more room to work with out on the mound.

Then in the bottom of the 6th inning, Nunez came up big once again. After Overbay collected his 3rd hit of the game to open the inning, he was moved to 2nd on a bunt by Cruz. Nunez singled back up the middle off of Tillman, with Overbay sliding in safely at home to put the Yankees ahead by a score of 5-4.

"Younger players are always a little bit different sometimes," Girardi said. "You figured he wouldn't be as rusty. Nunie is kind of a free spirit, so I don't think Nunie thought much about having a lot of at-bats."

"I know he didn't have a lot of reps, but we had a situation where someone went down and we called him up," Girardi said. "[Nunez] has the ability to swing the bat well and play defense, and that's what he did today."

From there on out, Pettitte and the bullpen were able to keep the Orioles off the board, with Shawn Kelley picking up a big punch out of Manny Machado to end the 7th. David Robertson set the side down in order in the 8th. And Mariano Rivera, doing what he does best, sent the O's packing in the 9th, picking up his 29th save of the season.

Pettitte also picked up his first win since June 5th in Seattle, No. 251 in his career. Doing so while allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits, he didn't walk a batter and struck out four on 100 pitches.

"I've been giving up a lot of runs early, and it's been a grind for me. I've been trying to grind as hard as I could to give this team a chance to win," Pettitte said. "You feel like this team is going to score some runs, so you hate putting us in a hole like I have been. So just real fortunate we were able to get back into it, get some big hits today and come away with a W."

Hiroki Kuroda will return the game action tomorrow as he takes the mound for the Yankees, facing off against Jason Hammel at 1:05 EST from the Bronx. And for those watching at home, that game can be seen on TBS.

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Bats Big Again, Yankees Sweep The Twins

Nothing is more American than baseball. And nothing is more New York Yankees than winning. Searching for their fourth straight win, the Yankees sent David Phelps out to the mound hoping he could give them that win, and he delivered.

Phelps looked nothing like he did in his last outing against the Orioles, when he gave up nine runs in 2 2/3 innings, holding the Twins to only four runs over 6 2/3 innings and was also given much support from the his offense to lead the Yankees to a 9-5 win.

"It was good -- the offense picked it up a lot, which was great to see," Hafner said. "The important thing was getting four wins, which is tough to do. Overall, we played well. Hopefully, now offensively we can keep it going."

The Yankees jumped all over Twins starter Kyle Gibson early in the game, scoring three runs in the 1st inning and two more in the 3rd.

Ichiro doubled off the right field wall to open up the ballgame, then Zoilo Almonte, batting second for the first time, single to right to set up runners on the corners with Robinson Cano up. Cano drove a fly ball to deep left field, giving Ichiro enough to tag and score from third.

Travis Hafner followed with a double to down the left field line, then Vernon Wells, playing in place of Brett Gardner, who was given the day off, didn't disappoint his manager, singling into center field to bring home a pair of runs to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

Wells was at it again in the 3rd inning, doubling into the left-center field gap to plate Hafner. Wells finished 2-for-4 with three RBI's. Luis Cruz singled to left field a couple batter later, picking up his first hit as a Yankee and driving home Lyle Overbay in the process.

Minnesota threatened to score in the first few innings, but didn't get onto the scoreboard until Justin Morneau uncorked his first of two homeruns on the game, a solo shot to right field.

The Yankees answered that homerun in the 6th inning when the managed to put up four more runs on the Twins, including a two-run double by Ichiro, who went 3-for-5 in the game, batting in Gardner's normal leadoff spot, and was a homerun shy of the cycle.

The Twins tried there best to make a late comeback in the 7th inning when they put together a couple base hits and score a pair of runs off of Phelps to knock him out of the game with two outs in the 7th. He finished with four runs on eight hits, while walking none and striking out five.

"I thought his location was better; I thought his curveball was a little bit better," Girardi said of Phelps. "He used his changeup. I thought he was a little bit better with his cutter, too."

Joba Chamberlain was brought in, but gave up a single to the first he he faced and was quickly lifted by Joe Girardi. Boone Logan replaced Joba and he, too, gave up a couple hits and a run.

In another jam in the 8th, Girardi lifted Logan in favor of Shawn Kelley and he quickly struck out the first two hitters he faced, then was able to induce a ground out to end the inning. David Robertson tossed a 1-2-3 9th inning to seal up the Yankees win.

"We were glad to see June go away and July start," Wells said. "The important thing is scoring runs and adding runs on, taking advantage of mistakes. We're getting pitches up in the zone, and we're not missing them. This is obviously a good thing heading back home, where we can obviously do some damage in our park."

Next up, the Yankees will head back home for series against the Orioles starting on Friday at Yankee Stadium. Ivan Nova will be making Hiroki Kuroda's scheduled start and he'll be facing off against Miguel Gonzalez at 7:05 EST from the Bronx.

"We're going home for a long stretch and we're bringing some momentum with us," Phelps said. "It would have been real easy to just take what happened in Baltimore and carry it into here, but we've got a good group of guys and we put it behind us."

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