I didn’t see any of Sunday afternoon’s 6-3 loss to the Twins, and it looks like I picked a good game to spend the entire day outdoors. I of course kept tabs on the score, and was pleasantly surprised — if not outright shocked — to see that the Yankees somehow had a 3-1 lead after 7 innings.
Of course, I was even more surprised to check back shortly thereafter to find that not only had the Twins taken a 6-3 lead in the 8th, but had done so by hitting a grand slam off Mariano Rivera! I immediately wondered if Mo had ever given a grand slam up; it turns out he’s done it four times, with the last coming all the way back in 2002.
Shocking as it was, it’s hard to get too upset about this one. I already penciled the Yankees in for a loss with Mitre starting, and while I was very excited that the team was on the cusp of stealing a win, given that we already won the series this isn’t really that big a deal.
It appears the offense squandered several opportunities, leaving nine on base and only picking up three runs despite getting nine hits off Twins starter Nick Blackburn. The Yanks even put the first two runners on in the bottom of the ninth against closer Jon Rauch (Randy Winn and Ramiro Pena of all people!), before Rauch somehow struck out the side (Derek Jeter, Brett Gardner and Mark Teixera, of all people).
Additionally, Mo wasn’t going to have a 0.00 ERA all year, and as invincible as Mo is 99% of the team, even He isn’t infallible. Better a blast like this come now than in October, that’s for sure.
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3 Responses to Twins fight back late; hit rare grand slam against Rivera to avoid sweep
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TIQ IQ
If it was October Kubel would have struck out there. The dude was 0-12 with 12 Ks in the ALDS.
Really not that big of deal though. Taking the series is always good enough for this guy. Also, the Twins hadn't won in the Bronx since 2007…you have to figure that couldn't last forever.
Yankees won the series, so yeah – can't complain and like Larry said, I didn't expect Mo to go 0.00 ERA all season long.
Yankees are set up pretty well against the Red Sox: Hughes for Dice K and then CC vs ? (if its not Lester, I'm happy!)
[...] for the regular season, the Twins went 2-4 against the Yankees, avoiding being swept at Yankee Stadium in mid-May thanks to a rather shocking Jason Kubel grand slam off Mariano Rivera, and also avoiding a sweep a [...]