Talk » weekend.TOO FEW POINTSTexas Techs 1

NEW YORK -- Hiroki Kuroda returned to the mound for one more gritty inning after an extended delay. Still, it mightve been more if Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild hadnt counted all the warmup tosses the right-hander threw to keep loose during the rain. Kuroda returned after a break of 73 minutes to pitch the fifth inning, Robinson Cano had another big hit against the Twins and New York beat Minnesota for the fifth time in two weeks, 2-0 Friday night. Kuroda threw 90 pitches when it counted and about 20 in the batting cage while waiting out the chilly downpour. Rothschild decided that was enough work for one night. "I think I gave Larry a hard time," Kuroda said. Brett Gardner and Cano helped give Kuroda (8-6) just his second win in 10 starts, dating to May 22, with RBI singles in the bottom of the fifth off Twins bullpen after the Yankees had no success against Scott Diamond early on. Boone Logan struck out the side in the seventh after relieving Preston Claiborne with two on. David Robertson was perfect in the eighth and Mariano Rivera finished off the eight-hitter for his 30th save. Rivera reached 30 saves for the 15th time in his career, passing Trevor Hoffman for most 30-save seasons in big league history. New York was playing without captain Derek Jeter after he strained his right quadriceps in his first game this season on Thursday. Jeter will not play in this series and the Yankees will re-evaluate after the All-Star break. "Its deflating a bit," said Lyle Overbay, whose at-bat in the fourth spanned the delay. When the tarps came out he was behind 0-1. "I had a 1-hour, 15-minute at-bat," Overbay joked. "First time I ever had to deal with that." The Yankees improved to 31-7 against Minnesota in New York since 2002. New York swept the Twins in four straight in Minnesota from July 1-4 and has won nine of 12 overall. The Twins were coming off a four-game sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays and have lost 12 of 13. Manager Ron Gardenhire talked before the game about not allowing Cano to beat him after the All-Star drove in nine runs during the sweep. "Bounce it. Please bounce it," Gardenhire said. The first two times up, the plan worked. Diamond walked Cano. But after the rain, with Brian Duensing on the mound, Cano lined a single up the middle to score the Yankees second run of the fifth inning. "Even with the elements, and the atmosphere, I felt like I was focused in pretty well," said Diamond, who gave up one hit in 3 1-3 innings. Luis Cruz had led off the fifth against Ryan Pressly (2-2), who took over for Diamond after the delay with one out in the fourth, with a single, just the Yankees second hit. Chris Stewart sacrificed him to second and Gardner slapped a single the opposite way to left field for a 1-0 lead. Gardner moved to second on the throw home. Duensing relieved and got Ichiro Suzuki to ground to second. Gardner advanced and then scored on Canos hit. That was more than enough to make Kuroda a winner against a Twins lineup that had great difficulty getting hits with runners on. Against the 38-year-old righty, Minnesota had eight runners on but only got one hit when there was a man on base. "We had opportunities and we put men out there just didnt come up with any big hits again, kinda what our storylines been," Gardenhire said. "Get them out there and missed opportunities." Kuroda allowed six hits and two walks. He struck out five. He lowered his ERA to 2.65. Claiborne took over for the sixth and had New Yorks first 1-2-3 inning. But he gave up hits to Pedro Florimon and Brian Dozier to start the seventh and yielded to left-hander Logan. With the rain falling heavily again, Logan struck out Chris Parmelee. He threw a wild pitch that moved the runners up before fanning Joe Mauer, and during Justin Morneaus at-bat threw another ball to the backstop but Florimon failed to score, even after Stewart flipped the slick ball past Logan, rushing to cover home. After being called out by third base umpire on Kerwin Danley on a checked-swing strike three, Morneau flipped his bat on home plate and threw his helmet. Plate umpire Lance Barksdale angrily pointed to the bat and Morneau picked it up. "Boone Logan did an outstanding job," manager Joe Girardi said. NOTES: The Yankees completed a contract with their third first-round draft pick, Aaron Judge, No. 32 overall for $1.8 million. The outfielder out of Fresno State was a compensation pick for losing Nick Swisher to free agency. ... Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguezs rehab game with Class-A Tampa was postponed by rain. ... Morneau singled in the first and has hit safely in 12 of 14 games at Yankee Stadium since 2009.Wholesale Blue Jays Jerseys . Two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 15 race in an area packed with fans cheering the passing runners. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured, including at least 16 who lost limbs. Blue Jays Jerseys 2019 .J. Jefferson has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend. https://www.cheapbluejays.com/ . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. Toronto Blue Jays Gear . Jane Virtanen scored two, and Alex Roach and Elliott Peterson rounded out the offence for the Hitmen (40-15-6). Brady Brassart chipped in with three assists. Colton McCarthy scored twice, Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, and Jack Rodewald also scored for the Warriors (15-35-9), who were 2 for 5 on the power play. Toronto Blue Jays Pro Shop . According to a report from the Winnipeg Free Press, the Bombers will name Acting GM Kyle Walters to the post full time.LUBBOCK, Texas -- Skyler Howard and his West Virginia teammates have had a goal all season to score at least 40 points.They did it and then some on Saturday as the 20th-ranked Mountaineers shut down Texas Tech 48-17. Howard ran for two touchdowns and threw for another to keep the Mountaineers unbeaten and in the hunt for the Big 12 title.It shows that we can do it, Howard said. It all goes back to the confidence.The Mountaineers (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) held Texas Tech (3-3, 1-2) to its lowest offensive output this season, just 379 yards, and harassed quarterback Patrick Mahomes most of the day. He threw for 305 yards, his second-lowest passing total of the season, and was replaced in the fourth quarter by Nic Shimonek.A 14-point turnaround in the second quarter helped the Mountaineers gain momentum. Sean Walters interception at the West Virginia 11 led to a TD pass from Howard to Justin Crawford at the other end of the field to put the Mountaineers up 17-7.We made some plays, got a good lead, Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen said. We were able to control the ball and shorten the game. Thats, in a perfect world, what we wanted to happen and thats what happened.Howard completed 21 of 31 passes for 318 yards. Rushel Shell, who finished with 104 yards rushing for West Virginia, scored two rushing TDs in the fourth quarter as the Mountaineers pulled away.The Mountaineers got solid play from their defense all game, adding to the mojo the offense felt, Howard saidIts always good when the other side of the ball is doing great, he said. The whole team has confidence.Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said his teams performance was embarrassing and not what he expected.Its the worst Ive seen since Ive been associated with Texas Tech, he said. We seemed intimidated and they took it.Kingsbury said some missed practices might be affecting Mahomes rhythm with the team. Holgorsen, though, thought the juniior quarterback was off a bit physically.ddddddddddddahomes, he needs to get healthy, Holgorsen said. You can tell hes not quite 100 percent right now. But the way he keeps it alive, Ive never seen anything like it. He keeps his eyes down field, makes any throw that you want him to. I mean, hes a fantastic player.TAKEAWAYSWest Virginia: The Mountaineers improved their success dramatically in the red zone. Coming into the game, West Virginia had found the end zone on just eight of 18 trips inside opponents 20 (44 percent). They scored on each of their eight trips there Saturday.Texas Tech: The Red Raiders streak of nine home games with at least 50 points -- an NCAA record -- ended with this loss. Their offense was stymied in every facet by West Virginias defense. Texas Techs run game, which typically sets up the pass, was nearly nonexistent. They finished with just 34 rushing yards.POLL IMPLICATIONS: Its not likely that West Virginia will move up much in The AP Poll after downing an unranked team. But one never knows. They moved up two spots after a bye last weekend.TOO FEW POINTSTexas Techs 17 points were the fewest the Red Raiders have scored since falling to Texas 34-13 in 2014. The second-quarter shutout by WVU snapped a streak of 28 straight quarters in which the Red Raiders have scored.INTERCEPTION STREAKWalters interception was the first of his career, and the team now has one in four straight games. The Mountaineers have forced a turnover in all five games this season and in 10 of their last 11. Walters interception was WVUs sixth of the season.UP NEXT:West Virginia: The Mountaineers host TCU next Saturday.Texas Tech: The Red Raiders host Oklahoma, which is led by former Texas Tech QB Baker Mayfield.---This story corrects spelling of Skyler Howard. ' ' '