MINNEAPOLIS -- The New York Yankees again ended the Twins’ postseason hopes, all but shutting down Minnesota’s vaunted Bomba Squad and getting enough key hits to win 5-1 Monday night at Target Field and complete a three-game sweep of the ALDS .
Eddie Rosario’s eighth-inning solo homer to center field was the only run for the Twins, who finished the regular season with 101 wins but only had the lead in the series one time, 2-0 after 1 1/2 innings of the opener.
The Twins stranded 11 runners, including 3 in the second inning after loading the bases with nobody out, and suffered their major league-record 16th straight postseason loss.
That includes 13 in a row to the Yankees, who are now 16-2 all-time in the playoffs against the Twins.
"It's baseball, so that can happen," said Rocco Baldelli, wrapping up his first season as a big-league manager. "You wish it doesn't happen in the playoffs, but it did."
Gleyber Torres homered, doubled and scored a run, while Yankee manager Aaron Boone-managing as if he did not want the series to last any longer-used six pitchers in the victory.
Chad Green (1-0), the third of five New York relief pitchers that followed starter Luis Severino, picked up the win, while Twins righthander Jake Odorizzi (0-1) was saddled with the loss.
Aroldis Chapman got the last five outs to pick up the save, getting Nelson Cruz on a called third strike with two runners on to end the game.
He struck out five and walked none, allowing the second-inning home run by Torres, just over the wall in left field and above the outstretched glove of Jake Cave, and Brett Gardner’s run-scoring hit in the third.
Gardner’s RBI left the Twins and their fans scratching their heads, wondering what it would take to finally win a playoff game against the Yankees.
Sure enough, Gardner’s bouncer went to the exact spot where Sano had been standing.
Twins fans came to life in the bottom of the second inning when Rosario doubled to the left-center gap, Mitch Garver walked, and Luis Arraez hit a soft single to left.
With Severino wavering, the righthander got Sano to pop up, then struck out Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Cave.
"That situation set the tone for the rest of the game," said Severiano. "That was the chance for the Twins to score. I threw enough good pitches to get out of that inning."
The Yankees out-scored the Twins 23-7 and advances to the AL Championship series against either Houston or Tampa Bay.
"Our guys were ready to play," said Baldelli. "There's just a lot of stuff that you do deal with in the post-season that you don't normally have to deal with, but I don't think any of it got in the way from our guys. We went out there and we did our absolute best, like we do every single night."
The Yankees had a 5-4 edge in homers after the Twins out-homered them 307-306 during the regular season to set the all-time record for most home runs by a team in one season.
The Rays battered the Astros 10-3 Monday to pull to within 2-1 in their ALDS.