Beating the Yankees Just Feels Right

It is only one regular season game, but it still felt good for the Twins to get a come from behind win in the Bronx. There were times that this game felt like many of the other losses that the Twins have piled up  at Yankee Stadium. The Twins found a way to pull ahead and get their first one-run win in New York since 2001.

Here are some of the key headlines for the Twins from last night:

Duensing settles in

Duensing Settles In: The beginning of the game looked like it was going to be rough for Duensing. He gave up a three-run homerun to Mark Teixeira and a solo bomb to Andrew Jones. Both of those came in the first two innings and Duensing was able to settle down to pitch through the seventh inning. It had been nine days since Duensing had pitched in a game so the slow start can be attributed to that amount of time between outings. The zeros that Duensing put on the board helped to allow a comeback to occur.

Efficient Capps: In a post I wrote at the beginning of the season, I picked Capps to be the Twins' Relief Pitcher of the Year. Performances like last night show why he can be such a valuable piece of the bullpen for the Twins. Capps had 1-2-3 innings in both the eight and ninth to set the stage for Nathan later in the tenth. The nicest part of the outing might have been how quickly he was able to get outs. It would have been interesting to see if Capps returned to game if the Twins hadn't taken the lead in the tenth.

Nishioka's big hit

Nishioka's Big Hit: As the tenth inning began to unfold it was frustrating to see Nishioka not being able to get the bunt down to advance the runner. But behind in the count, he was able to come up with a clutch hit down the line to keep the inning moving. Let's hope this hit will snowball and Nishioka can continue to have productive at-bats as the season progresses.

Mauer's safe at the plate

Mauer runs and hits: To say that Mauer has been struggling to start the season, would be an understatement. Mauer worked a key walk as the Twins rallied in the eighth inning. He would later score on the bloop hit by Young but it was surprising to see that the Twins sent Mauer on that play. For a big man Mauer was flying around the bases. The other nice thing was to see Mauer step up to the plate in the tenth inning with two runners on and a chance to take the lead. He found the hole right between Teixeira and Cano to give the Twins the lead.

Mauer and Nathan celebrate the win

Nathan 1-2-3 Tenth: Nathan struggled in his first save situation against Toronto by allowing a run and having to get out of a bases loaded jam to preserve the win. It is interesting to see how Nathan has changed himself since his Tommy John surgery. The velocity on his fastball isn't what it use to be so he is using his off-speed pitches more frequently. He was locating his fastball very well last night so hopefully that continues to improve.