New York powers its way into ALCS berth
Minnesota’s playoff losing streak at 16
MINNEAPOLIS — Gleyber Torres got New York going with a second-inning home run, scored on each of his two doubles and made a pair of sparkling defensive plays, fueling the Yankees to a 5-1 victory over Minnesota on Monday night to finish yet another sweep of the Twins and advance to the AL Championship Series.
Didi Gregorius hit two RBI singles for the Yankees and Cameron Maybin homered for the Yankees, who stretched their postseason winning streak over the Twins to 13 straight games. Minnesota has lost 16 consecutive postseason games, matching the North American major sports record held by the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL from 1975-79.
Following a 103-win regular season and its first AL title since 2012, New York, starts the AL Championship Series on Saturday, at home against Tampa Bay or at Houston.
AL Central champion Minnesota became the first 100win team swept in the Division Series. The Twins are 2-16 against the Yankees in the playoffs since the 2004 ALDS opener. Outscored 23-7 in the series, they batted just .218 and after hitting a record 307 homers had just four in the Division Series, all solo shots.
Yankees starter Luis Severino pitched out of trouble for four scoreless innings in just his fourth big league appearance after recovering from a spring training lat injury. Chad Green, the third of five relievers, got four outs for the win.
Gregorius went 4 for 10 with six RBIs in the series. Dating to the 2017 wild card game, he’s 23 for 50 with seven homers and 33 RBIs in just 14 games against the Twins, who became the first 100win team in history to be swept in a division series.
Eddie Rosario went 3 for 4 for the Twins with a homer to lead off the eighth off Zack Britton, who was limping a bit after covering first base on a grounder two batters earlier and left in the eighth with assistance from head athletic trainer Steve Donahue. Yankees relievers allowed three runs over 13 1/3 innings, in the series.
On this idyllic fall evening that started at 62 degrees, the Twins trotted out Torii Hunter for the ceremonial first pitch to fellow retired fan favorite Joe Mauer, and the sellout crowd of 41,121 for the first postseason game at Target Field since the ballpark’s 2010 debut was buzzing.
The energy hardly ever deflated, even when the 22-year-old Torres became the fifth-youngest Yankees player to register a postseason homer in when he took Twins starter Jake Odorizzi deep. The ball barely cleared the dark green wall in left-center.
Typifying this long-running lopsided matchup, almost all the could-go-either-way plays went to the Yankees, leaving the Twins largely shaking their heads at all their near misses.