Game 141: Derek Jeter Day

It's the day we've all been wishing would stay away for several more years -- Derek Jeter Day. The Yankees will be holding a big pre-game ceremony for Jeter, very similar to the one held for Mariano Rivera last season -- minus Metallica, of course.

The ceremony is expected to start sometime around 12:30 p.m., according to the Yankees, so whether you're at the game or watching from home, you'll want to make sure you don't miss it because it's going to be big, emotional, and a little fun.

Joe Torre, Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Gerald Williams, Tim Raines, and probably many more will be at The Stadium today for Jeter.

As for the game, which will start around 1:35 p.m. ET, the Yankees and Royals split the first two games of the series after the Yankees took last night's game, 6-1, on the strength of another good outing from Brandon McCarthy.

Today's lineup against Kansas City:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
SS Derek Jeter
2B Martin Prado
RF Carlos Beltran
C Brian McCann
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Stephen Drew
3B Chase Headley
LF Ichiro Suzuki

Pitching Matchup: Shane Greene vs Yordano Ventura

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Joe Girardi needs to consider changing around the Yankees' lineup

Sometimes the easiest, most obvious answer is the one right in front you. Despite all the Yankees' troubles this season, they still have a shot at the playoffs. The starting rotation has been decimated, the offense has been lackluster for much of the season, and yet there is still a chance.

Getting the offense going is and has always been the key to this year's Yankees, and a simple lineup change could do wonders. For much of the year, Jacoby Ellsbury has been masquerading as a No. 3 hitter, it's safe to assume that's not what Brian Cashman had in mind when he signed the former Red Sox outfielder to a seven-year, $142 million contract this past offseason.

Brett Gardner -- who is having a career year -- has hit first all season. Followed by Gardner has been Derek Jeter, who in his final season, has been underwhelming at the plate, and that's putting it lightly. This was supposed to be a year-long farewell to Jeter, but his power has been nonexistent.

In August, as the Yankees were trying to catch Seattle and Detroit for the second Wild Card spot, Jeter hit .207 with four extra base hits, while Ellsbury was absolutely on fire. For the month, Ellsbury hit .324/.366/.539 with five home runs, 16 RBIs with five doubles, one triple and 9-for-9 in stolen base attempts.  

Martin Prado and his .466 slugging percentage have fit in nicely at the No. 3 spot followed by Brian McCann, Mark Texiera and Carlos Beltran have made the Yankees offense good enough at this time. Jeter batting second with his inability to hit the ball in the air has just a .312 slugging percentage is unacceptable at this time.

I wanted Jeter's final year to be a great last hurrah as much as the next guy, but he hasn't been the same since he broke his ankle in the first game of the 2012 ALCS. Given Girardi's relationship with the aging star, it's not surprising that he's sticking with No. 2, but that has to stop now.

For 20 years Jeter has professed to not care about personal statistics, if that is the case and there is no reason to doubt his team-first stance, then he should have no problem dropping down to the No. 7 spot in the lineup. This isn't A-Rod dropping to No. 7 by Joe Torre in the 2006 ALCS by any means.

The Yankees need for Jeter to move down in the lineup for the sake of the team. Masahiro Tanaka is on pace to return to the mound later this month to join Michael Pineda, Hiroki Kuroda and surprise additions' Shane Greene and Brandon McCarthy.

Sure, they trail Detroit/Kansas City by four games for the second Wild Card, and they would have to win a game just to get to the Division Series, but the playoffs aren't out of reach.

It's time for Girardi to stop looking at his shortstop like the future first-ballot Hall of Famer that he is, but a 40-year-old with no power, who is no longer fit to hit second for a contending team. It's a cold truth to swallow, but Father Time is undefeated in matters such as these.

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Yankees 0, Indians 3: New York strikes out 15 times in loss to Cleveland

Looking for his fifth win since joining New York back in July, Brandon McCarthy took the mound on Saturday afternoon to face the same team that he went up against in his Yankees debut, the Cleveland Indians.

McCarthy was impressive again, but in the end, and early homerun from  turned out to be the difference maker in a 3-0 loss in the second of three games at Yankee Stadium this weekend.

McCarthy worked around a two-out single in the 1st inning, then again retired the first two hitters of the 2nd before Lonnie Chisenhall lined a single to center field. A batter later, Jose Ramirez made it a 2-0 game with a two-run dinger that just barely made it's way over the right field wall for his first career homerun. In any other ballpark, that ball would have stayed in, but not in Yankee Stadium, who left-handed hitter live like kings with the short porch in right field.

That was the only blemish on the lineup of McCarthy, who put together another solid outing, going 6 1/3 inning, giving up just the two runs on seven hits, striking out eight without issuing a single walk on 90 pitches.

McCarthy was good, but Indians starter Corey Kluber was even better. Kluber didn't put a runner on base until hitting Francisco Cervelli with a pitch in the 3rd inning, and he didn't give up a hit until Jacoby Ellsbury smacked a one-out double in the 4th.

Kluber ran into some trouble in the 6th inning, giving up back-to-back leadoff singles to Derek Jeter, who moved into sole possession of 6th place on baseball's all-time hits list with his 3,431st base knock, and Ellsbury, setting up runners on first and second with nobody out. But Kluber buckled down to strikeout the next three hitters, Carlos Beltran, Chase Headley, and Stephen Drew, to end the inning and escape the danger.

Kluber, in all, struck out 10 in six shutout inning, giving up just four hits while walking one batter on 109 pitches.

McCarthy gave up a pair of hits before handing the ball to Rich Hill with one out in the 7th. Hill gave up a single to Chris Dickerson to load the bases, then got Jason Kipnis to ground into a fielder's choice at the plate for the second out of the inning. Joe Girardi made another pitching change, bringing in Chase Whitley, who struck out Mike Aviles for the final out of the inning.

Michael Brantley added to Cleveland's lead in the 8th inning with a solo homerun off of the right field foul pole against Whitley, pushing the Indians' lead to 3-0.

The Yankees threatened again in the 8th, with Brett Gardner doubling off of Scott Atchison to open the inning. After striking out Jeter, Atchison hit Ellsbury on the left foot with a pitch, putting runners on first and second with one out. But then Atchison battled back to strike out Beltran and Headley to end the inning.

Indians pitchers struck out 15 Yankees hitters, as the Bombers put another one of their weak hitting displays with just four hits, snapping their three-game winning streak.

The Yankees and Indians will finish up their three-game series on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. ET. Hiroki Kuroda will be on the mound for New York, with Carlos Carrasco getting the ball for Cleveland.

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Yankees 3, Red Sox 4: New Yankees, same Yankees

The sorta-new-look Yankees lineup made it's debut against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night in Boston, but by looking at the box score, you would have thought that Joe Girardi was running out the same out lineup that has struggled to score runs all season, as the Bombers fell to the Sox and their rookie starter, 4-3.

New look, same results: The Yankees only managed six hits in this one, two of them from Carlos Beltran -- a solo homerun in the 4th inning, his 13th of the season, that put the Yanks on the board after falling behind 2-0, and the second being an RBI single in the 6th inning that scored Jacoby Ellsbury, who walked and stole second base to open the inning. One of the other four Yankee hits was from Derek Jeter, who hit a rare homerun -- a solo shot over The Monster, his 2nd of the year, that pulled the Yankees to within a run in the 8th. Other than that, not much else. Ellsbury and Mark Teixeira each collected a hit, as did Ichiro Suzuki, who started in right field before Martin Prado pinch-hit for him later in the game and went 0-for-2 in his Yankees debut.

Facing his former team: Chris Capuano, who started the season with the Boston Red Sox before he was released in early July, started on the mound for the Yankees. Didn't get a chance to watch the game tonight, so it's hard to say exactly how well he pitched, but he gave up all four Red Sox runs on eight hits, while striking out five without walking a batter over 6.1 innings. The Sox took a 2-0 lead against Capuano in the 3rd inning. Dustin Pedroia hit a ground-rule double over the right field wall for the first run, driving in Brock Holt, who hit a one-out triple just ahead of Pedroia. David Ortiz singled him home a batter later for the second run. David Ross made it a 3-1 game in the 4th inning on an RBI single, and then Pedroia put up the fourth run in the 7th on a single off of Shawn Kelley.

Big league debut: After trading away three of their pitchers on in the final 48 hours leading up to the trading deadline, the Red Sox called up Anthony Ranaudo to make his big league debut against the Bombers on Friday night. Beltran was really the only hitter capable of figuring him out, driving in both of his RBIs against him. However, the right-hander lasted six innings, giving up just two runs on four hits with four walks.

Other notes: Pedroia was the only hitter that Kelley faced out of the bullpen. Matt Thornton pitched the final two outs of the 7th inning, getting Ortiz to ground into a double play on the first pitch he threw, and then Adam Warren took care of the 8th with a 1-2-3 on 12 pitches ..... Chase Headley made a pair of really great plays at third base. The first on a pick in near the third base line in the 3rd inning to make the out, and then a second a few innings later when he laid out for a ball to his right, again getting the out at first base.

Up next: The Yankees and Red Sox continue this series on Saturday afternoon at 4:05 p.m. ET. Allen Webster will start for Boston, while the Yankees will counter with Shane Greene. The game will be on FOX, I believe.

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Yankees 2, Rangers 4: One bad inning hurts David Phelps and the Yanks

Entering an important week for the New York Yankees, playing six games against last place ball clubs with the trading deadline mixed in, the Bombers' road trip did not get off to a great start. After taking an early 2-0 lead against starter Yu Darvish, the Rangers came back to score four runs in the 5th, which was all they needed in a 4-2 win over the Yanks on Monday night in Arlington.

Let's get the positive note out of the way: with three hits tonight, Derek Jeter reached 3,420 career hits, which put him ahead of Carl Yastrzemski for 7th on the all-time hits list. So congrats to Jeter.

The Yankees collected 11 hits in the game, but only managed to score two runs, and they might not have done that if Brett Gardner wasn't in the lineup for them to face Darvish, who in case you haven't heard is owned by Gardner, who has four career hits against the Japanese ace -- all four homerun, including two on Monday.

Both solo homeruns, the first put the Yankees up 1-0  in the 3rd inning on a shot to right field. The second, which came in the 5th, was a blast to center field, putting the Bombers up 2-0, giving David Phelps a decent, but not great lead to work with.

Phelps was cruising along nicely through the first four inning, throwing just 55 pitches. Phelps had only given up three hits before reaching the 5th, where things got ugly.

Chris Gimenez opened the inning with a single before Phelps retired the next two hitters, making it seem like it would be another short inning. However, Gimenez had moved to second on a grounded, then scored on a Elvis Andrus double to put the Rangers on the board. Alex Rios, who the Yankees have looked at, singled a batter later to put runners on the corners, then Adrian Beltre doubled to score Andrus as the tying run. Phelps walked Jim Adduci to load the bases, then JP Arencibia drove in Beltran and Rios on a singles to put the Rangers up 4-2. All of that with two outs.

The nightmare inning for Phelps finally ended a batter later, and he followed up with scoreless 6th inning to finish off his night, in which he was charged with four runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out three on 96 pitches (66 strikes).

His counterpart, Darvish, was not overly phased by the two Gardner homeruns. He still managed to get through seven innings, giving up just the two runs on seven hits, with a walk and eight strikeouts.

After Phelps, Shawn Kelley came out of the bullpen for Joe Girardi, tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up just two hits. And then Matt Thornton was called upon to get the final out of the 8th, which he did by striking out Rougned Odor.

Some game notes: Brian McCann was at first base yet again with Mark Teixeira out, and all I can say is that the Yankees are far better defensively with Teixeira at first ..... speaking of Teixeira, he came off of the bench to pinch-hit in the 8th inning for Brian Roberts and singled to left field in the at-bat; I'd have to guess that Tex will be in the lineup on Tuesday ..... Gardner and Jeter at the top of the lineup tonight: 6-for-9 with three extra-base hits and no strikeouts, while the rest of the lineup:  5-for-28 with no extra-base hits and eight strikeouts.

The Yankees and Rangers continue this three game series on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET. Brandon McCarthy will be on the mound for the Bombers, while the Rangers will counter with right-hander Nick Martinez.

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

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Derek Jeter's legacy will never be forgotten

Over the past 20 years, there have been so many good things said about Derek Jeter, but none of them summed up his career quite like the recent Jordan commercial. It only runs one minute and 40 seconds, but #RE2PECT shows the admiration from the sports world for a player that has personified the latest generation of Yankee greatness.

From Carmelo Anthony to Phil Jackson to Tiger Woods to two indifferent Red Sox fans to Michael Jordan himself tipped their caps to Jeter and the home crowd at Yankee Stadium chanting his name, the clever spot showed the respect that Jeter has amassed over his long career.

With over 3,400 hits, 500 doubles, 250 home runs, 350 stolen bases and a career .311 batting average, those are accolades that would put any player into the Hall of Fame, but Jeter's career has always come down to those big moments in October and sometimes November.

As much as he is praised for his consistency, one thing is taken for granted -- Jeter can flat out hit. Jeter has 1,000 multi-hit games -- only the fourth player in MLB history to do so -- joining Pete Rose, Hank Aaron and Stan Musial.

Everybody has their personal favorite Jeter moment; from the flip against Oakland in the 2001 Division Series to the head-first crash into the stands against the Red Sox in the Bronx in 2004 to becoming only the second player to reach 3,000 hits with a home run in 2011 off David Price and of course, the walk-off home run against Arizona in the 2001 World Series to usher in November baseball and earn the now famous nickname, Mr. November.

All but one of those moments came in the postseason where Jeter's Yankees came out on top more often than not. Jeter helped the Yankees win four World Series in five years and came within two outs of winning four straight and five out of six.  Jeter also showed staying power with the Yankees as he was able to win a fifth championship with future Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera in 2009 to come full circle.

Over the years there have been many opinions about if Jeter is one of the best clutch performers in baseball history, but when it comes down to it, he's just himself in the biggest moments. So often the game's greatest players struggle on baseball's biggest stage, but Jeter was able to do what he normally does and that's always been about getting on base with a hit.

In 158 postseason games, Jeter hit for a slash line of .308/.374/.465 with an OPS of .838 to go along with 111 runs scored, 200 hits, 32 doubles, five triples, 20 homers and 61 RBIs. When you look at those numbers, that's basically a regular season for The Captain.

Baseball is the ultimate team sport, but year after year, Jeter was there in the two-hole producing with the type of consistency not often seen by hitters in the game today. As pitching has begun to dominate and Jeter's started to reach the ages when he was supposed to decline, he refused to give in.

In 2010, a contract year, Jeter hit just .270 and the talk was that Jeter was getting too old. He responded by flying past the 3,000-hit milestone with a blast off Rays ace David Price and in 2012 he led all of baseball with 212 hits. The thought of No. 2 reaching 4,000 hits didn't seem so far-fetched, but when he suffered a broken ankle in the postseason, his career was suddenly back on a timer.

The 2013 season was lost and Jeter announced before this season that his 20th season would be his last. His power might be gone, but once again in the All Star Game when the game's greatest players shine, he showed he's still got a little bit left in the tank.

After a standing ovation from the capacity crowd at Target Field and every player on the field and in both dugouts, Jeter laced a leadoff double to the right field corner to start a three-run inning for the American League. A bloop single in the third capped another memorable All Start Game for Jeter, who finishes his career with a .481 batting average in the Midsummer Classic.

At the end of this season, Jeter will hang up his cleats for the final time and walk away from the game that has made him a household name. Once you cut through all the accolades and statistics for which there are many, you have a man who earned the respect of his peers in a game that exposes even the greatest athletes, and that is the most impressive part of Derek Sanderson Jeter.

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Yankees 3, Orioles 0: Shane Greene dominated the Orioles

Shane Greene made his first big league start on Monday against the Cleveland Indians, where he took a no-hitter into the 5th inning. He made his second big league start on Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles, where he also took a no-hitter into the 5th inning. The Yankees' offense, once again, was pretty quite, but scored enough runs to back up Greene, who tossed another great game en route to the second win of his major league career.

After the Yankees stranded runners on first and second base with nobody out to open the 2nd inning, Mark Teixeira put the Bombers on the board in the 3rd inning with an RBI double into the right field corner, scoring Brett Gardner, who reached on a fielder's choice, from second base, with Derek Jeter being gunned down at the plate to end the inning.

That was the only run that Chris Tillman had given up through the first six innings. The Yankees also wasted a good scoring chance in the 6th when Brian Roberts struck out with runners on the corners to end the inning.

Tillman ran into trouble in the 7th, however, and that's when the Yankees where able to pad their lead with a pair of runs.

Kelly Johnson singled to open the inning, moved to second base on a wild pitch from Tillman, then scored on a two-out single by Jeter, who collected a pair of hits for the 1,001st multi-hit game of his career. That knocked Tillman out of the game after 6 2/3 innings; TJ McFarland came on an immediately gave up an RBI double to Jacoby Ellsbury, making it a 3-0 game. Tillman was charged with all three runs on seven hits and three walks, with four strikeouts.

And now to Greene, who was very good in just his second start. He cam out early attacking hitters and throwing strikes to a pretty impatient Orioles lineup. He was really having success with his hard-sinking sinker and a pretty good breaking ball. Like I said, he didn't give up a hit until there were two outs in the 5th, and that hit came from a good piece of hitting by Ryan Flarerty, who reached out to hit a two-strike sinker off the plate, smacking it right back up the middle.

Greene did a great job of working out of trouble in the 6th inning, where he gave up back-to-back singles to Nick Markakis and Steve Pearce to open the inning. The next batter, Adam Jones, though, grounded into a double play, then Nelson Cruz struck out to end the threat.

Greene took the mound to open the 8th inning, retired Steve Clevenger, then Joe Girardi decided to pull the plug on his great day. He struck out nine, giving up just four hits with two walks on 106 pitches in 7 1/3 innings. He and Hiroki Kuroda in back-to-back games has made it look like there's actually some hope for this rotation after all.

David Huff only faced one batter in the 8th -- it was Markakis and he singled -- before Girardi brought in Shawn Kelley, who retired the next two hitters to end the 8th.

Then in the 9th, David Robertson did David Robertson things, striking out the final two batters of the game to seal hsi 23rd save of the season, and a 3-0 win for the Yankees, which brings them back to four games within of the first place Orioles.

The Yankees will finish up the first half of their season tomorrow night on ESPN'S Sunday Night Baseball. Kevin Gausman will be on the mound for the O's, while the Yankees are expected to counter with Chase Whitley.

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Derek Jeter, Masahiro Tanaka and Dellin Betances named to AL All-Star team

The rosters for the 85th annual MLB All-Star Game were announced on Sunday night. The Yankees will be sending three players, at least (injuries and other things will alter the roster before the game), to Minnesota one week from Tuesday, and to no surprise, Derek Jeter will be one of them after being the leading vote getter of all American League Shortstops with over 3.9 million votes.

Jeter will be joined at Target Field by a pair of rookie pitchers -- Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka, and Dellin Betances, who has been the team's best bullpen arm this season.

Jeter, who turned 40 a couple weeks ago, is hitting .271 this season after picking up three more hits on Sunday in the Yankees' 9-7 win over the Minnesota Twins.

In what will be the 14th and final All-Star Game of his Hall of Fame career, Jeter will certainly be the center piece of the game, and it'll be really interesting to see how he's treated during the game and how he leaves, just as it was watching Mariano Rivera enter and leave the game last year in New York.

Tanaka signed with the Yankees in January, and has taken the league by storm. Arguably the best pitcher in the American League this season -- definitely the top rookie -- Tanaka is 12-3 this season with a 2.27 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, and 130 strikeouts in 122.2 innings. Tanaka has a great case to start the All-Star Game, but he is slated to pitch against the Orioles next Sunday, which would pretty much rule him out of pitching at all in the game. Bummer, right?

As for Betances, this kid has been a great story this season, being named to the All-Star team during his first year in the big leagues. A youngster with a bright future as a starter, the Yankees converted him to the bullpen, gave him a shot during the spring, and he's made the very most of it.

With one of the best K/9 in the league (not better than David Robertson's, though), Betances has a 1.61 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, and 78 strikeouts in just 50.1 innings. Happy for this kid, I'll be he'll get the nod for the game a few more times before his career ends.

As for any possible snubs, I think that you could really make a case for David Robertson to be an All-Star. In his first year as the Yankees' closer, he's recorded 21 saves -- three in this four-game series against the Twins -- with a 2.93 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 30.2 innings. There will probably be a couple of pitchers drop out of the game because of injuries or pitching the Sunday before (like Tanaka), so maybe there is a chance he'll still get in.

I also thought that Brett Gardner had a good case, but probably not good enough to get him in.

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Starting AL lineup: Miguel Cabrera (1B), Robinson Cano (2B), Derek Jeter (SS), Josh Donaldson (3B), Jose Bautista (OF, MLB's leading vote-getter at almost 6 million votes), Mike Trout (OF), Adam Jones (OF), and Nelson Cruz (DH).

Reserves: Derek Norris, Kurt Suzuki, Edwin Encarnacion, Brandon Moss, Jose Altuve, Adrian Beltre, Alexei Ramirez, Jose Abreu, Michael Brantley, Yoenis Cespedes, Alex Gordon, Victor Martinez.

Pitchers: Yu Darvish, Max Scherzer, Felix Hernandez, Masahiro Tanaka, Jon Lester, David Price, Scott Kazmir, Mark Buehrle, Sean Doolittle, Greg Holland, Glen Perkins and Dellin Betances.

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Starting NL lineup: Yadier Molina (C), Paul Goldschmidt (1B), Chase Utley (2B), Troy Tulowitzski (SS), Aramis Ramirez (3B), Andrew McCutchen (OF), Carlos Gomez (OF), and Yasiel Puig (OF).

Reserves: Jonathan Lucroy, Devin Mesoraco, Freddie Freeman, Dee Gordon, Daniel Murphy, Matt Carpenter, Todd Frazier, Starlin Castro, Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Harrison, Hunter Pence, Charlie Blackmon.

Pitchers: Johnny Cueto, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, Adam Wainwright, Tyson Ross, Jordan Zimmermann, Julio Teheran, Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, Francisco Rodriguez, Tony Watson, and Pat Neshek.

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Yankees 9, Twins 7: Yanks hold on late to take series against Minnesota

After scoring just one run in 11 innings in Saturday, the Yankees' offense broke out once again on Sunday, scoring nine straight runs to open up the game against the Minnesota Twins, but the game tightened up in the final innings, and the Bombers were able to pull away with a 9-7 win, taking three of four games against the Twins at Target Field this week.

The Yankees pounded Twins starter Ricky Nolasco for six runs in the first two innings, including to in the 1st, Brett Gardner opened the game with a walk, Derek Jeter singled, then Mark Teixeira singled to batters later, scoring Gardner to put the Yanks on the board. The next batter, Brian McCann, doubled to deep right-center to drive in Jeter.

Brian Roberts, Ichiro Suzuki and Kelly Johnson kicked off the 2nd inning with back-to-back-to-back singles. Two batters later, Jeter knocked in Roberts on a sac-fly, then Jacoby Ellsbury smacked a three-run homerun to right field, his 5th of the season, to put the Yankees up 6-0.

Nolasco only lasted two innings, being tagged for six runs on seven hits. He walked one and didn't strike out anybody while tossing 42 pitches. Not his day.

Anthony Swarzak was the Yankees' next victim, as he was attacked for three runs in the 4th inning.

Ichiro and Johnson opened with back-to-back singles. Jeter singled two batters later to bring in Ichiro; Ellsbury grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Johnson; after Teixeira singled to move Ellsbury to third base, Ellsbury scored from third base on a Swarzak balk, making it a 9-0 game.

But the Twins didn't gave up, as they scored seven unanswered runs to make this a ballgame once again.

Hiroki Kuroda was pitching well for the Yankees -- he only gave up a hit through the first three innings before the Twins got all four of their runs against him in the 4th on five hits and an error -- an infield single scored the first run; and RBI double by Trevor Plouffe scored the second; then a two-run homerun by Chris Colabello made it a 9-4 game.

Kuroda managed to make it through 5 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts on 105 pitches. Not a bad outing from him; it could have been better.

The Yankees didn't do anything offensively after jumping out to a 9-0 lead, but the Twins added one run in each inning after the 6th, starting the streak against Adam Warren in the 7th, who was appearing in his 40th game of the season.

Minnesota put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out after Brian Dozier doubled and Eduardo Nunez singled, advancing to second on the throw to third. Chris Parmelee followed Nunez with a run-scoring groundout. Warren didn't have much control, walking the next batter, but struck out Oswaldo Garcia to end the inning.

Plouffe went deep off of Jim Miller in the 8th, hitting a solo homerun into the left-center field bullpen. The David Robertson entered the game in the 9th, looking for his third save of this four-game series. He struck out the first batter, gave up a pair of singles to put runners on 1st and 2nd, struck out Josh Willingham for the second out ahead of Arcia, who singled him a run to pull the Twins within two runs, but bounced back to get Kurt Suzuki to groundout to end the ball game.

Jeter, by the way, singled in his final at-bat of the game in the 9th inning. The hit was the 3,400th of his career.

The Yankees will head off to Cleveland now to start a four-game series against the Indians at Progressive Field. The Yankees announced today that Shane Greene will come up to make the start in the place of Vidal Nuno, who was traded to the D-Backs on Sunday. He and the Yanks will be facing Justin Masterson at 7:05 pm ET.

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Game 86: Going for three straight

After getting the Fourth of July off, Derek Jeter is back in the Yankees' lineup this afternoon as the Bombers look to make it three straight wins over the Minnesota Twins to begin this four-game series at Target Field. The Twins plan to honor Jeter before the game today. Last year, they gave Mariano Rivera rocking chair made out of bats he broke in his career and called it the "Chair of Broken Dreams."

That was a really cool gift -- maybe the best of his farewell tour -- so it'll be interesting to see what Minnesota gives Jeter today.

The Yankees won the battle of the bullpens yesterday, with starter Chase Whitley only going three innings. David Huff was perfect in his three innings of work -- I started thinking about what would happen if the Yankees give Huff a chance to start, then I remembered how that worked out last season -- then Adam Warren, Dellin Betances and David Robertson finished off the final three innings.

With the loss to the Bombers yesterday, the Twins fell to 0-7 in their last seven games against the Yankees at Target Field. It's basically the Yanks' home away from home.

Today's lineup against Minnesota:

SS Derek Jeter
2B Brian Roberts
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
RF Ichiro Suzuki
LF Alfonso Soriano
C Francisco Cervelli
3B Zelous Wheeler

* Brian McCann was a late scratch from the lineup today because of some soreness in his foot that also kept him out of Friday's game. Joe Girardi thought that McCann would be good to go, but that was obvisouly not the case. The lineup has been moved a around: Jeter will now lead off rather than Ellsbury, and Roberts will slot in the No. 2 spot, where he hit yesterday.

We saw something happen to McCann during Thursday night's game after reaching first base on a single, but he stayed in the game and everything was fine for the rest of the night. Don't really know the problem other than that it's sore.

Pitching matchup preview:

Maybe David Phelps could give the Yankees some innings today and let the bullpen have a nice easy day off. Phelps will be on the mound for the Bombers this afternoon, and has been pitching well lately, allowing two or fewer runs in three of his last four starts.

Phelps is coming off of a no-decision against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium this past week, when he gave up two runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Rookie right-hander Yohan Pino will be taking the mound for the Twins today, looking for his first career victory after going winless in his first three starts.

Pino allowed four runs on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings in his last outing against the Kansas City Royals on Monday.

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