Sanchez HR sparks Yanks to victory

Minneapolis — Gary Sanchez was struggling since coming off the disabled list, and the New York Yankees were off to a so-so September start.

Facing the Minnesota Twins seems to be a cure-all.

Sanchez had three hits, including a mammoth home run, J.A. Happ tossed six shutout innings and the Yankees continued their mastery of the Twins with a 7-2 win on Monday night.

Could his first three-hit game since April 16 be a turning point for the catcher hitting .189?

"I've hit the ball very hard all season and I haven't got the results I wanted. If this is what it takes for me to find a good streak here or a good positive streak, yeah, why not," Sanchez said through an interpreter.

New York has beaten Minnesota nine straight times, including last year's wild card game, outscoring the Twins 66-23. The Yankees are 20-4 in the teams' meetings since July 25, 2015.

The Yankees, 5-4 in the season's final month, increased their lead over idle Oakland to three games for the first AL wild-card spot.

Happ (16-6) allowed six hits and struck out three. Acquired from Toronto on July 26, the left-hander has allowed two or fewer runs in six of eight starts for New York, going 6-0 with a 2.70 ERA.

"I ran into a couple outings before I came over where I really wasn't getting strike one as much as I needed to," he said. "Tonight, I felt like I was ahead in the count a lot and kind of forced them to be aggressive and swing."

Kyle Gibson (7-13) allowed four hits and one earned run in 5 2/3 innings. He was one batter away from tossing six shutout innings before Sanchez crushed low 2-2 fastball 460 feet into the third deck in left field.

"We've talked before about a guy's sweet spot, and some guys like the ball down and that's probably on the fringe of where he likes the ball the most," Gibson said.