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Abreu drives in winning run as Yankees edge Twins

Jun 1, 2008 - 5:13 AM By Anthony Maggio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) - They are still in fourth place in the American League East, but at least the New York Yankees are back over .500.

The Yankees outlasted the Minnesota Twins, 7-6, in 12 innings at the Metrodome on Saturday to improve to 28-27, the club's first above-.500 record since New York was 17-16 on May 4.

Bobby Abreu broke a 12th-inning tie with an RBI single and Mariano Rivera shut the door to clinch the victory, the Yankees' eighth in their last 10 games.

"To me it's important to get over .500 because you start looking at trying to get five games over and you go in small increments," New York manager Joe Girardi said.

The Yankees' hottest stretch of the season has come on the heels of their worst of the year - when New York lost six of seven games to fall five games below .500 at 20-25.

The return of Alex Rodriguez from a right quad strain on May 20 has hardly been a coincidence.

"Just his presence, even if he walked up to an at-bat with both legs aching, shoulders aching, it doesn't matter," outfielder Johnny Damon said. "Just him standing there creates opportunities for us."

Rodriguez had a two-run single in this one and stole a pair of bases, but it was righthanded reliever Ross Ohlendorf who stood out the most. Ohlendorf (1-1) pitched two innings of scoreless relief - stranding a pair of baserunner in both frames - to earn his first major league win.

Ohlendorf nearly gave up a game-winning home run to Mike Lamb with two outs in the 10th inning, but the high fly ball went off the top of the baggie in right field for a triple. Ohlendorf struck out Carlos Gomez on three pitches just two batters later to strand Lamb at third.

He gave up a leadoff single and walked Joe Mauer to start the 11th inning, but retired Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel in order to end the threat.

After Damon, Derek Jeter and Abreu all hit one-out singles in the 12th off Twins reliever Juan Rincon (2-2), Rivera pitched a perfect 12th inning for his second save in as many nights and 15th in 15 tries this season to get Ohlendorf the win.

"It was certainly a memorable night," Ohlendorf said. "I think it makes it more special for me in that it was a pressure situation."

New York led, 6-3, after 5 1/2 innings, but ace righthander Chien-Ming Wang couldn't hang on to the lead.

The Twins clawed back within one in the bottom half. Delmon Young and Nick Punto both singled and scored on Carlos Gomez's base hit and Alexi Casilla's fielder's choice, respectively.

Minnesota knotted the score at 6-6 an inning later when Cuddyer hit a solo home run off Edwar Ramirez - his first since April 26. It was the first run Ramirez has allowed this season, snapping a run of 21 straight scoreless appearances between the Yankees and Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Wang continued his recent struggles, with at least five earned runs allowed in his third straight start. The righthander allowed five runs on nine hits with three walks and four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings - his shortest outing since April 16 against Boston. Wang, who said after the game he is "a little bit" worried about his recent performance but said physically he feels fine, is 0-2 in his last five starts overall.

"He was just having a tough time repeating his delivery," Girardi said. "He hasn't thrown the ball quite like he did before, but all starters go through that. I'm not worried about him at all. He'll get back. Even when he's off, he's still pretty good."

Twins starter Boof Bonser, who likely will lose his spot in the rotation when Scott Baker makes his impending return from a groin injury, had one of his better starts of the season despite failing to complete six innings. The righthander allowed five runs - two earned - on five hits with three walks and two strikeouts, and was not even on the field when his earned runs crossed home plate.

"He threw fine," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We'll make decisions for Boof and everybody else, what we'll do with our rotation, in the next couple of days."

After allowing just one hit his first time through the Yankees lineup and getting a 3-0 lead, Bonser was the victim of some bad luck in the third inning. He retired the first two batters out before walking Damon.

Jeter followed with a slow grounder to shortstop that Punto fumbled while trying to make a running pickup and throw in one motion. Abreu followed with an RBI double and Rodriguez looped a two-RBI single just over Punto's outstretched glove before Bonser could get out of the inning.

Bonser made it through two more innings unscathed before walking Hideki Matsui and giving up Jason Giambi's single to start the sixth inning.

Jesse Crain came on in relief and got Robinson Cano to pop out, but then allowed Jose Molina's RBI double, Melky Cabrera's sacrifice fly and Damon's RBI single before escaping the frame.

Casilla walked and scored in the first and third innings, and Young doubled and scored in the second as Minnesota built a 3-0 advantage.

Minnesota has lost four straight and seven of its last nine home games.