Twins-Yankees: The boat is starting to take on water

The Twins' recent slide is bringing back those old feelings, They are banged up, the offense is sputtering and the starting pitching is faltering. As a result, they have lost nine of their last 11 games and are 11 games back in the AL Central.

Worse yet: Houston and Arizona are tied for the worst record in baseball - and the Twins are just 3.5 games ahead.

They need a slumpbuster today against the Yankees. Can Yohan Pino provide it?

Jeter day

The Twins will honor the retiring Derek Jeter before today's game. It's making quite a difference here this week.

Twins fans, for some reason, have booed Jeter mercilessly here for years despite the fact that he's never done anything to warrant such action - other than win games. No taunting. No injuring Twins players, No showboating. No cheating. But he's been booed when other Yankees players haven't. It's perplexing. Then again, it's not.

But not this week. Jeter was cheered when he took the field for pre-game work today and cheered when he came off the field.

Danny Santana is eligible to come off the disabled list on July 13, the final game before the All-Star break.
The Twins are willing to activate him for that game in Colorado. instead of giving him four more days off.
Santana, on the 15-day DL with a bone bruise near his left knee, is making progress with his rehabilitation. The Twins are considering bringing him on the upcoming road trip to Seattle and Colorado so he can work out with the team, if it looks like he'll be ready to play once he's eligible to be activated.

UPDATE: Twins GM Terry Ryan said the Santana will not travel with the team on the road trip and that there's a chance he would go on a minor league rehab stint during the MLB All-Star break. That makes sense, to make sure the knee is fine.

Yankees (43-42)

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
The Captain, SS
Brian McCann, C
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Carlos Beltran, DH
Brian Roberts, 2B
Ichiro, RF
Alfonso Soriano, LF
Zelous Wheeler, 3B

David Phelps, RHP

Brian Dozier, 2B
Kurt Suzuki, C
Chris Parmelee, 1B
Kendrys Morales, DH
Josh Willingham, LF
Oswaldo Arcia, RF
Trevor Plouffe, 3B
Eduardo Escobar, SS
Sam Fuld, CF