Blackburn & Bullpen Shut Down Yankee Offense

With one out in the 5th inning of Sunday's game between the Yankees and the Twins, Derek Jeter hit his 3rd home run of the year, and put the Yankees on the scoreboard. As it turned out, it would be the only run the Yankees would get all afternoon...

To that point, Twins starting pitcher Nick Blackburn had allowed only 3 hits and no runs...

Following the Jeter home run there was quite a scare when Bobby Abreu lined a shot off of Blackburn's face. For a moment he lay motionless on the ground but immediately got to his feet...Although he had to leave the game, it was soon reported that he didn't sustain any serious injury...let's hope he's okay!

From that point on Twins' reliever took over and kept Yankee bats silent pretty much the rest of the way surrendering only 3 hits and no runs the rest of the way as the Yankees fell 5-1 to the Twins...

Additional Notes:

Although Darrell Rasner was not as sharp as in previous starts, he pitched well enough to keep the Yanks in the game, allowing 4 runs in 5 1/3 innings...but on this day the offense couldn't come through...It will be interesting to see how Rasner rebounds in his next start-my guess is he'll do just fine...

Scott Patterson made his major league debut when he relieved Darrell Rasner in the 6th...He went 1 1/3 innings allowing 1 run on 1 hit and 2 walks-an inauspicious debut, but he did manage to get out of a bases loaded jam with a strikeout, so you never know...

Chris Britton, who relieved Patterson, retired all 4 batters he faced...perhaps he'll start getting more work...

Tomorrow the Yanks still have a chance to take 3 out of 4 in this series with Andy Pettitte on the mound...

GO YANKS!