Morning Bits

Good morning everyone!

Yankee fans who stayed awake to watch last night's game after a 73 minute rain delay were treated to a 2-0 victory by the Yankees over the Twins last night.

Hiroki Kuroda returned after the long rain delay to pitch the 5th inning and then gave way to Preston Claiborne, Boone Logan, David Robertson, and Mariano Rivera who all pitched scoreless innings.

The Yankees offense was woeful, managing only six hits off of five Twins pitchers who will never be mistaken for Sandy Koufax, to say the least.Fortunately for the Yankees, three of those six hits came in the fifth inning where they managed to score the game's only two runs on RBI singles by Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano.

The win put the Yankees at 5-3 so far on this second of three ten-game homestands that they will host this season.

The Yankees and Twins will meet again today in the Bronx in an afternoon game that is sure to have some weary players from last night's late night affair.  Today's game starts at 1:05 PM ET and will be televised by YES.  Phil Hughes(4-8, 4.55 ERA) will make what could be his last start in Yankee pinstripes before being traded over the All-Star break against Samuel Deduno(4-4, 3.90 ERA).

I don't normally rant during Morning Links but this particular subject calls for some attention.

Hughes was abused and confused by Yankee GM Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi's "Joba Rules" and has been "pitching for his rotation spot" for what seems like three seasons now.

It is very likely that Hughes will depart and thrive with a different club where he is just given the ball and allowed to pitch without constant "will he stay in the rotation?" pressure.

Like Joba, Hughes was flip-flopped constantly between starting and relieving.

With Joba Chamberlain also likely to be traded soon, Cashman and Girardi should be ashamed of themselves for screwing up the Hughes/Chamberlain/Kennedy trio which had so much promise by trading one too early and screwing up the two that they kept.

Now on to today's news links:

Mark Feinsand says the Yankees dropped the ball on Derek Jeter's return from the DL.

Dustin Knosler of the Yahoo Sports writes that the Yankees and Dodgers could be great trade partners.

Have a great day everyone!