Morneau belts two HRs; Marquis earns first Twins victory

NEW YORK - Jason Marquis' daughter, Reese, watched Wednesday night's game with family and friends from a suite at Yankee Stadium. She is out of the hospital and still on the path to recovery, but at least the 7-year-old is back to doing many of the things little girls do.

That allows her father to do what he does. Pitch.

"To see where she was a month ago to now is nothing short of amazing," Marquis said. "To just be out on that mound knowing that she's safe is definitely the place where I wanted to be."

But then he added: "I don't want to be there with the bases loaded."

Marquis' first inning with the Twins saw him give up three runs and needing Alexi Casilla to make a nice stop with the bases loaded to start an inning-ending double play. Marquis settled down to last five innings and the Twins moved on to a 6-5 victory over the Yankees, with Justin Morneau powering the way with two home runs and three RBI. The Twins now have won two games in a series on Yankees turf for the first time since 2001.

"The biggest story is Marquis coming back," Morneau said. "It gave us a chance to win and I'm sure it means a lot to him. He came back after that first inning and kept us in the ballgame. And now we have a chance to win a series [Thursday]."

Marquis' Twins debut was delayed because he spent two weeks of spring training with his daughter as she recovered from injuries suffered in a serious bicycle accident in mid-March. She needed four surgeries over the first 10 nerve-racking days.

Marquis was handed a 4-0 lead in the first inning Wednesday but nearly gave it away in the bottom of the first as the Yankees closed to 4-3. But Marquis made some adjustments, made better pitches and lasted five innings. He gave up four runs on seven hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Four of those hits and both walks came in the first inning. The only other run off him was a Robinson Cano solo homer in the third.

"He had to battle all night long but made some pitches when he had to," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

The Twins got an RBI single by Sean Burroughs in the third and a solo home run by Morneau in the fifth to build a 6-4 lead. With three home runs in this series, Morneau now has seven home runs in 12 games at the new Yankee Stadium. In 80 games at Target Field, Morneau has five home runs.

Lefthander Brian Duensing replaced Marquis for 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Righthander Jared Burton, who got a big strikeout of Nick Swisher to end the seventh, then pitched a 1-2-3 eighth.

Closer Matt Capps entered in the ninth inning and gave up a one-out solo home run to Derek Jeter. But Capps, whipping out his new split-fingered fastball, struck out Curtis Granderson and got Mark Teixeira to fly out deep to right to end the game. Right fielder Clete Thomas caught the final out as a plastic bottle sailed by him.