Sweet-swinging A-Rod aims to guide Yanks to sweep of Twins

Apr 11, 2007, 15:05 GMT

- Alex Rodriguez hopes to continue his incredible start to the season this evening when the New York Yankees try and complete a three- game sweep of the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.

Rodriguez stayed hot on Tuesday with his sixth homer in seven games and Johnny Damon added a three-run homer of his own, as New York rolled to a 10-1 win. Kevin Thompson added a pair of RBI while Andy Pettitte tossed six scoreless frames for the Yankees, who have won three of four overall.

Pettitte (1-0) yielded just four hits over his outing with one walk to three strikeouts.

The American League's Co-Player of the Week, Rodriguez homered for the fourth straight game and is one of nine players in major league history to amass six homers through his first seven games. Mike Schmidt holds the major league record, hitting seven homers in his first seven games in 1976.

Rodriguez also became the fourth player in the last 50 years to have an extra base hit in each of his team's first seven games. Dating back to last season, Rodriguez has an extra base hit in 10 consecutive contests.

Boof Bonser (0-1), meanwhile, surrendered seven runs -- six earned -- over 4 1/3 innings for Minnesota, which has dropped three of four. Jason Kubel produced his team's lone run with an RBI in the seventh.

Getting the call for the Yankees tonight will be veteran right-hander Mike Mussina, who has owned the Twins over the course of his career. In 28 starts against them, Mussina is 20-5 with a 3.17 ERA. However, he is 0-3 with a 6.35 ERA in his last four outings against the Twins.

Mussina, who is 10-5 in 15 starts at the Metrodome, got off to a shaky start on Friday against Baltimore, as he was tagged with the loss after allowing six runs in just four innings.

Minnesota will pin its hopes tonight on right-hander Ramon Ortiz, who picked up the win in his Twins' debut last Wednesday against the Orioles. Ortiz surrendered a pair of runs and five hits over seven innings in that one.

Ortiz, who has served up eight home runs to Rodriguez, is 3-1 lifetime against the Yankees with a 4.73 ERA in 12 games, nine of which have been starts.

These teams split the six-game season series last season for the second straight year. The Yanks, though, have won the last three as the road team in this matchup.

© 2007 The Sports Network