If you did not have a calendar, last night felt an awful lot like October at Yankee Stadium.
The temperature was in the 50s, there was a light breeze, and the Twins could not figure out a way to beat the Yankees.
It was not postseason baseball, just game No. 4 of 162, but the Yankees beat the Twins, 4-3, to continue the dominance over the Twins in front of 40,331 fans, six months after knocking them out of the playoffs for the second straight year.
Last night, they relied on 24-year-old starting pitcher Ivan Nova, who gave up three two-out runs but pitched well against a lineup filled with tough left-handed hitters. The tall righty struck out three over six innings, but did give up four extra-base hits.
The Yankees’ home run barrage continued with two-run shots from Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. The team now has 11 home runs through its first four games, one shy of the team record set in 2003. Rodriguez has two home runs already this year, and it was Posada’s third in two days.
It was another formula win for the Yankees, similar to Opening Day — use power to get the lead, get six innings from the starter, then turn it over to Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera to close it out. The trio pitched three scoreless innings, giving up two hits.
Nova showed an ability to limit the damage last night, something he struggled with in 2010. The Twins had him on the ropes in the fourth and fifth innings, but he managed to hold onto the lead. Getting through the fifth inning was a challenge for him last season.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi showed confidence in Nova, leaving him in to face Joe Mauer in the fifth with a runner in scoring position and letting him work through troubles in the fourth inning, when the Twins scored two runs on three hits. Lefty Boone Logan was up at one point, but Girardi let Nova face the Twins’ tough left-handers.
“These are things that he’s going to have to do for us,” Girardi said. “He’s going to have to be able to get through these situations. It’s all a part of learning how to pitch at this level. He was throwing the ball good and we stayed with him.”
Staked to a 4-0 lead, Nova kept the Twins hitless and helpless through the first three innings.
The Twins broke through in the fourth, getting two runs on three hits, the big one from Jim Thome, who took a Nova changeup to the warning track to score two runs. Girardi stuck with Nova, and he retired Jason Kubel on a groundout to end the inning.
Nova gave up two more doubles in the fifth inning, and the Twins cut the Yankees lead to 4-3. Joe Mauer came up with a runner on second and two out, and Nova got the former batting champ to ground out, escaping danger again.
“Tonight he made some pitches where I thought last year perhaps that game could have gotten away from him,” Rodriguez said.
Morneau singled to lead off the sixth, but Young hit into a double play to erase the threat. Nova then struck Thome out on another 92 mile per hour fastball. Nova punched his met and screamed in celebration as he walked off the field.
“That was emotion,” Nova said. “That was the game, and the one before when he got the double, I couldn’t take him out. When I faced him, I said, ‘I’ve got to take you out right now.’ That’s why the emotion came out when I got him out.”