Bronx, N.Y., April 7, 2011 – Early returns are in and, despite dire predictions about the Yankees and their rotation, they received their fifth quality start in six tries Thursday afternoon. The Yanks got by the visiting Minnesota Twins 4-3, plating exactly four runs for the third straight game, two of them 4-3 victories. A. J. Burnett went to 2-0 and the Bombers headed to Boston for their first 2011 road series having managed to win a game without hitting a home run.

They didn’t pummel Twins lefty Francisco Liriano, the subject of offseason trade rumors to the Yanks, for bunches of hits either. In fact, for a team that can seem small-ball-deficient, the home team did a great job of making the most of a smattering of offense. True, they did waste Derek Jeter’s leadoff double pulled over third in the first inning, but they took an early 1-0 lead in the third without a hit, and retook the lead for good in the fourth with three runs on three of the five hits they got all game.

Burnett, who went six for the win, one more than his first victory Saturday, was working his way through trouble early in the game as well. He followed a one-two-three first by walking the first two batters in the second on 10 pitches. But mixing his fastball with his killer curve and an effective change, A.J. battled through that frame, including punching one of Minnesota’s hottest hitters, Jason Kubel, out with a drop-off-the-table bender. Still, Denard Span doubled with one down in the third, and moved to third on a wild pitch one out later. Call strike three past Joe Mauer got A.J. to the fourth not having been scored upon, now with the one-run lead, but doubles to three of the four first batters put him in a 2-1 hole.

Justin Morneau hit a low missile to the wall in right and, although Brett Gardner seemed to lose Jim Thome’s fly to deep center and pursued it haltingly, a 400-foot bomb is a big hit, and his double tied the game. One out later, Kubel pulled a shot inside the line at first, a ball that Mark Teixeira will spear with his dive four out of five times, but again, a clear hit. But A.J. stiffened at that point, retiring eight of the next nine around a glancing Mauer infield single off Burnett on which Jeter made a fine recovery and throw, but just late. The Yankee righty yielded five hits and the two runs through six, with two walks and five strike outs, three of them swinging, even though he coaxed just six swings and misses while in there. The 62/37 strikes/balls ratio was good, better than the 13 of 25 first-pitch strikes.

And the two runs allowed was more than enough because in two good Yankee innings they scored four. First Gardner, batting ninth and playing center, stole a run in the bottom of the third. Leading off with a walk despite taking the first two pitches for strikes, he surprised the ballpark — and Joe Mauer — by breaking for second and sliding in safe on a 3-0 count to Jeter. Derek moved him to third with a bouncer to first on the next pitch, and Brett could have walked home when Swisher followed with a liner short of the wall in right. The next inning, down 2-1 now, Alex Rodriguez drew a six-pitch walk and moved to second on a Robinson Cano single. One out later Andruw Jones, who had lined to deep center in the second, stroked a 1-2 double into the left field corner for the tie. Russell Martin’s soft roller to Moeller, in at first, scored Cano, and then Gardner parachuted a soft fly that fell in in short center for a single and a 4-2 lead.

Following Burnett’s six innings, Joba Chamberlain surrendered an unearned run in the seventh, getting into trouble when Alexi Casilla, trying to bunt at 1-1, was hit by a pitch when he pulled the bat back at the last second. He stole second, and when Martin’s throw caromed off his body, he scooted to third; he then scored on a Span bouncer to first. Following his ugly inning that turned a lead into a loss Tuesday, Rafael Soriano, in for the eighth, heard some murmurs when Mauer singled leading off, but the new setup guy retired the next three Twins on seven pitches, the same amount of throws it took Mariano Rivera to save the game in the ninth, even if third baseman Danny Valencia’s long drive to left with one down gave us all a brief scare.

Following a rainy morning, the weather dried before game time, but it continued to be cloudy and chilly, and the game played beyond three hours despite the fact that just seven runs crossed on only 10 hits between the two clubs. The Yanks have won four games, all saved by future Hall of Famer Rivera. And speaking of Famers-to-be, Jeter’s double in the first moved him into a tie, but his seventh-inning single vaulted him into 33rd place by himself on the all-time hits list, moving past Jake Beckley and Rogers Hornsby, a pretty fair shortstop a whole bunch of years ago.

Catfish Hunter beat the Brewers 3-0 in the old stadium on opening day on this day in 1977, a year that would be crowned with the club’s first Championship in some years. And on April 7, 1990 in Indianapolis, Farm Aid IV was held, featuring among its acts Bonnie Raitt; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; the legendary Carl Perkins; and a still together Guns N’ Roses. That was a No. 4, true, but the Yanks had a pretty fair No. 2 playing for them today.

Although Burnett gets the first star on this one based on the six solid innings, and Gardner scored runs with both legs and bat, there was no bigger hit on the day than Jones’s rbi double that scored the first of three in the fourth. Many feared that the once young phenom had become too old and slow to help this team, but he’s had key rbi’s in each of his first two games. He has hit the ball hard, and he made a very long run and sliding catch on a Thome pop to short left leading off the sixth inning. So although today’s starter and winner was A.J. No. 1,

Andruw Jones was A.J. Number 2.