NEW YORK (AP) — New postseason, same old story for the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins.
DJ LeMahieu homered and drove in four runs, Gleyber Torres broke a tie with a two-run double and the Yankees extended their October mastery of Minnesota with a 10-4 victory Friday night in the AL Division Series opener.
Aaron Judge made two diving catches in right field as the AL East champions handed Minnesota its major league-record 14th consecutive playoff defeat — 11 of them to the Yankees since 2004. The second grab thwarted a potential rally and left grateful reliever Zack Britton with both hands on his head to end the top of the seventh, when the Twins were still within striking distance.
“Huge,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s so good out there.”
Brett Gardner also went deep for the Bronx Bombers in a playoff matchup between teams that finished neck-and-neck this season for the most home runs in baseball history. Minnesota’s Bomba Squad socked 307, one more than New York as both clubs blew away the previous mark of 267 set by the Yankees last year.
But in the 14th postseason meeting of 100-win teams, it was more of the same Yankees dominance against the Twins — even though many of Minnesota’s players and coaches weren’t around for most of it.
Minnesota, the AL Central champion for the first time in nine years, was hurt by eight walks and hasn’t won a playoff game since Johan Santana beat Hall of Famer Mike Mussina 2-0 in the 2004 Division Series opener at Yankee Stadium. Boston also lost 13 straight postseason games, from 1986-95.
Jorge Polanco, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sanó homered for Minnesota.
