Rasner shines for first win as Yanks down Twins

Sep 3, 2006, 20:30 GMT

Bronx, NY - Darrell Rasner pitched six strong innings for his first major league win and Alex Rodriguez hit a pair of homers and drove in five runs, as the New York Yankees rolled to a 10-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins in the rubber match of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

Robinson Cano went 3-for-5 with a two-run double and Bobby Abreu added three doubles with an RBI and a run scored for the Yankees, who won for the fifth time in their last seven games.

Rodriguez belted a solo homer in the fifth inning and drilled a three-run shot in the seventh, giving him five homers in his last four games, then finished his afternoon with a run-scoring single in the eighth. He also recorded his ninth straight season of 30 homers and 100 runs batted in.

'He wasn't quitting on anybody,' Yankees manager Joe Torre said about the recent hot streak for Rodriguez. 'It's just great to see much more relaxed at- bats that he's having.'

Rasner (1-0) limited the Twins to a run on four hits with two strikeouts in his first start of the season. He pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief against Detroit on June 1 before going on the disabled list with right shoulder soreness.

'It feels great,' Rasner said about his first win. 'I'm just happy to get the opportunity and it's a big honor for me.'

Torii Hunter homered for the lone Minnesota run. Jason Bartlett added a pair of hits for the Twins, who have lost five of their last seven. Minnesota remained one-half game behind Chicago for the AL wild card lead, as the White Sox fell to Kansas City.

Matt Garza (1-4) took the loss for the Twins, allowing five runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out two.

The Twins grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second when Hunter drilled a 3-0 pitch over the wall in left field for his 23rd homer of the season. The Yankees then put two on with no outs in the bottom of the inning, but came away empty when Bernie Williams flied out and Melky Cabrera grounded into a double play.

Minnesota threatened in the third with runners on the corners and no outs, but Nick Punto hit a bouncer toward the mound and Jason Tyner was tagged out in a rundown between third and home. Luis Rodriguez then hit into a double play to end the inning.

'That was the momentum changer there,' said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. 'We had a chance to score some runs and do some damage in that inning and we end up getting nothing out of it.'

The Yankees went on top in the bottom of the inning with four runs.

Derek Jeter walked with one out and scored on a double to the base of the center field wall by Abreu. After Jason Giambi walked and Rodriguez lined out, Jorge Posada singled home Abreu to give New York the lead. Cano followed with a two-run double to make it 4-1.

Rodriguez connected for his 30th homer of the season with two outs in the fifth and added his second of the game in the seventh to give New York an 8-1 cushion.

Jeter doubled in the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 14 games and scored on a single by Rodriguez. Posada followed with another run-scoring single to account for the final margin.

'We didn't quite pitch as well as we'd like to in this series,' Gardenhire added. 'We had a decent ballgame [Saturday] where we played pretty good, but they definitely outplayed us in this series.'

Game Notes

Rodriguez, who also homered twice in Friday's series-opener, has four multi- homer games this season and 44 in his career.

Jeter appeared in his 1,647th game as a shortstop to tie Phil Rizzuto's club record.

Rasner was 4-0 in 10 games at Triple-A Columbus.

The Yankees and Twins, possible playoff foes, finished the season series tied at 3-3.

© 2006 The Sports Network