Yankees Slug Past Twins 8-4

The New York Yankees got some help from the long ball as they defeated the Minnesota Twins 8-4 on Thursday night. For the second straight night, the Yankees were caught up in more home run instant replay drama.

What happened in this review? Which injured Yankees will return this weekend?

The Yankees got themselves involved in more instant review time on Thursday night. In the top of the first inning, the Twins' Justin Morneau hit a towering shot to deep right field. It was initially ruled a home run. However, Joe Girardi came out to argue the call with the first base umpire Jim Wolf. The umpire crew got together and went to instant replay. The umpires came back and ruled the ball went foul. Ron Gardenhire was then ejected for arguing the instant replay decision, which is not permitted, and was then thrown out by umpire Brian O'Nora.

CC Sabathia then settled down into the game, pitching for 7 innings giving up 10 hits, 4 runs (3 earned), walking one and striking out 9. The bullpen of David Robertson and Corey Wade pitched two innings of hit-less baseball. Sabathia picked up his 17th win.

In the game, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, and Andruw Jones all hit home runs, accounting for 5 of the 8 Yankee runs. The Yankees will get an added boost to their lineup sometime over the weekend as Alex Rodriguez should be coming back from the disabled list. In addition, hopefully the Yankees will get back Freddy Garcia into their rotation. However, if he can't throw his splitter, he will then likely be placed on the DL retroactive to his last start, and then used for the next doubleheader.