Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Twins go from Diamond to dust in loss to Yankees. StarTribune.com (Miller) pg. 1 Who would replace Willingham if he goes on DL? StarTribune.com (Miller) pg. 2 Reusse: Once-dominant Burton setting up Twins to fail. StarTribune.com (Reusse) pg. 3 Pelfrey does what he needs in Cedar Rapids rehab start. StarTribune.com (Sinker) pg. 4 Willingham scheduled for MRI. StarTribune.com (Miller) pg. 5 Byron Buxton: A better prospect than Mauer, Trout…Pujols? StarTribune.com (Neal) pg. 6 Twinsights after 10-4 loss to the New York Yankees. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 6 Minnesota Twins get heavy dose of AL East competition. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 8 Feeling ill, Joe Mauer sits for first time in 20 games. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 8 Minnesota Twins set to sign outfield prospect Lewin Diaz. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 9 Minnesota Twins’ Josh Willingham a late scratch from lineup! PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 10 Minnesota Twins’ Mike Pelfrey makes rehab start. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 10 Minnesota Twins won’t be sad to see Yankees’ Mariano Rivera go. PioneerPress.com (Smith) pg. 10 Yankees 10, Twins 4: Errant pickoff opens door for New York. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 11 Errant pickoff throw sparks late-inning meltdown. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 12 TwinsFest to be at Target Field for first time in 2014. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger and Erickson) pg. 13 Two pitchers strong of late, Deduno takes on Hughes. MLB.com (Vitale) pg. 15 Mauer closing in on sixth All-Star appearance. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 16 Burton’s rough stretch continues as game unravels. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 17 Déjà Vu?: Byron Buxton stirs echoes of Mike Trout in Cedar Rapids. BaseballAmerica.com (Cooper) pg. 18 Josh Willingham will undergo MRI on knee after being scratched from lineup. 1500ESPN.com (Zulgad and Warne) pg. 22 Notebook: Twins expected to be active in international free agency. 1500ESPN.com (Warne) pg. 23 Twins get no relief from Jared Burton as Yankees rally for victory. 1500ESPN.com (AP) pg. 24 TwinsFest 2014 moves to Target Field from Jan. 24-26. FSN (Staff) pg. 25 Twins Scott Diamond scales mental hurdle versus Yankees. FSN (Mason) pg. 25 Samuel Deduno looks to extend perfect home record. FSN (AP) pg. 26 Twins go from Diamond to dust in loss to Yankees Phil Miller / StarTribune.com – 7/2/13 The Yankees used Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning on Monday to protect their 10-4 lead. Maybe they were just trying to cheer up the gloomy Twins fans who remained. Rivera, greeted with enthusiastic cheers when he made a surprise appearance, didn’t get a save for his inning of work. But Twins starter Scott Diamond deserved one: If he was pitching for his job, he probably saved it with his best outing in a month. ~ 1 ~ But Diamond’s strong 6 ⅔ innings were overshadowed by another poor outing by Jared Burton, the worst night of the season for the Twins bullpen and the prospect of losing cleanup hitter Josh Willingham to a knee injury. Amid all that to worry about, losing yet another game to the Yankees barely seemed newsworthy. “Tough night,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We got to the right guys at the end.” Usually the Twins bullpen is trustworthy. This time, it surrendered seven runs over the final two innings, removing any chance for the game’s all-time save leader to notch No. 635. Burton was the biggest culprit, handed a 4-3 lead in the eighth after Chris Parmelee broke a tie score with a home run to the right-field stands. The Twins setup man gave up a leadoff double to Robinson Cano, who already had homered twice — “the one guy we talked about not beating us,” Gardenhire grumbled — and the problems got worse from there. Ichiro Suzuki bunted his way on, as Burton threw the ball past Justin Morneau, and the tying run scored when Burton threw a pickoff attempt into right field. Zoilo Almonte singled Suzuki home moments later, and Burton’s fifth blown save of the year had turned the game around. Brian Duensing relieved and gave up four runs of his own — seven total runs allowed by the bullpen, a season-high number. That’s quite a reversal of most of Diamond’s recent starts. Lately, it’s been the starter who surrenders the runs. But Diamond reached the seventh inning for the first time since June 2, and if not for Cano, he would have posted one of his best starts of the year. Yep, if not for the 435-foot blast to straightaway center in the first inning, or the two-run cannon shot into the left-field seats in the third. When Diamond made a mistake, it was a big one. “I knew what I needed to do, and that was to work down in the zone. I was just trying to keep it simple,” Diamond said after striking up five and walking only one. “It seems like the past couple of outings, everything has really been speeding up. I’ve been overthinking and questioning. Today, it was just about staying calm and working one pitch at a time.” Not bad timing, considering Mike Pelfrey was reclaiming his own rotation spot at the same time Monday, pitching six strong innings in a rehab start for Class A Cedar Rapids. The Twins will have a surplus of starters when Pelfrey is reactivated on Saturday, and Diamond might have been at risk. Now? P.J. Walters, who has had three subpar starts in a row, faces this same lineup on Wednesday, and Gardenhire, pitching coach Rick Anderson and GM Terry Ryan will need to shed a starter by the weekend. While Diamond was keeping the Yankees, most of them, at bay, Andy Pettitte was reaching a plateau that no Yankees pitcher had reached before. The 41-year-old lefthander struck out Clete Thomas in the second inning, then whiffed Justin Morneau in the fifth, giving him 1,958 strikeouts while playing for New York. That’s one more than Hall of Famer Whitey Ford racked up in his 16-year career. Who would replace Willingham if he goes on DL? Phil Miller / StarTribune.com – 7/2/13 A couple of notes from yet another Twins loss to the Yankees: Josh Willingham has been playing with a sore knee for a month now, and he obviously thought he could keep playing while he heals. So he tried to sound optimistic after the game Monday, but you could tell he knows that the decision may have as much to do with the Twins' outfielder shortage as his knee's condition. In other words, if he needs a few days to let it heal, the Twins just don't have them. So who would the Twins call up? The only outfielder at Rochester who's on the 40-man roster is Aaron Hicks, who is on a rehab assignment. Hicks is batting .190 (4-for-21) for the Red Wings, who were rained out on Monday, but bringing him back would allow the Twins to give Clete Thomas an occasional day off. Manager Ron Gardenhire and general manager Terry Ryan have been adamant that they want Hicks to produce at the plate before they bring him back, but this may disrupt that plan. ~ 2 ~ Chris Herrmann is another possibility; he was an outfielder before the Twins converted him to catcher, and he can even play center. Herrmann would also give the Twins three catchers again, which may not be a bad idea considering that Ryan Doumit has been limited by a hamstring injury. It's also possible, of course, that Willingham's knee will feel better Tuesday and an MRI will show no damage. Maybe a cortisone shot will help again and the outfielder can convince Ron Gardenhire that he'll be good enough to play in a day or two. But that wasn't the vibe in the clubhouse after tonight's game. -- If you're coming to Tuesday's game and appreciate Mariano Rivera's contribution to the game, show up a little early. The Twins will hold a special ceremony at 6:50 to honor the game's all-time saves leader. And speaking of coming to the game, not as many did tonight as I would have expected. Attendance was only 29,619; only six home games (of 28 played) in May or June attracted a smaller crowd. Several messages on Twitter mentioned the Twins' flexible pricing as one culprit -- Yankee games are the most expensive of the season, and Twins fans don't like paying the premium prices. -- The Twins' three-run first inning might have been even bigger, but for perhaps the worst call I've seen in a game this year. With nobody out, Justin Morneau tapped a ball to third, and David Adams double-clutched before he threw. Morneau clearly beat the throw -- replays showed the ball still five feet away when his foot touched the bag, and it was obvious to the naked eye, too -- but umpire Corey Blaser called him out. Not saying it would have changed the outcome of a 10-4 loss, but the Twins might have knocked Andy Pettitte out of the game early, considering he threw 41 pitches in the first inning. Reusse: Once-dominant Burton setting up Twins to fail Patrick Reusse / StarTribune.com – 7/2/13 The Twins signed Jared Burton as a minor league free agent on Nov. 11, 2011. They did so knowing that he was on the rebound from right shoulder surgery and he would have to be protected to a degree in his workload.