The New York Yankees played an exciting game with the Minnesota Twins last night that saw Robinson Cano homer twice, the Yankees end a losing streak, and longtime starter Andy Pettitte become the franchise leader in strikeouts.
Pettitte's outing was far from the best of his career; he went just five innings and gave up four runs, while striking out two. That second strikeout was historic, however, as it pushed him past Whitey Ford for the franchise lead in strikeouts.
The 41-year-old left-hander is in his 15th season in pinstripes. He may have spent three seasons (2004-2006) with the Astros, but his legacy is unquestionably as a Yankee. He has racked up 1,958 strikeouts as a Bronx Bomber, and won 213 games, 63 percent of his starts.
When asked about his lofty place in Yankees' history, arguably the greatest franchise in the history of professional sports, Pettitte said, "I feel very fortunate to be around for as long as I have. To be able to be mentioned with Whitey's name is obviously always an honor."
More important to the Yankees, and possibly even Pettitte, was the eruption of offense in the last two innings that helped them pull away from Minnesota for a 10-4 win. They rocked Minnesota's bullpen for seven runs in the eighth and ninth innings, with their star second baseman Robinson Cano ending a power outage by swatting his second home run of the night.
"We're not that team anymore that we used to have the guys that we could say, 'This guy might hit two home runs in the next inning," Cano said. "So we've just got to take advantage when we get men on base."
Yankees manager Joe Girardi reached a milestone as well in this victory, notching the 600th win of his managerial career. "You hope that the hard work that they've been putting in starts to pay off," Girardi said. "Maybe this is the start of something."
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