MINNEAPOLIS _ No sweat.
When it comes to New York Yankees-Minnesota Twins in October, that's the way it always is.
The Yankees completed a three-game sweep of their personal postseason punching bag _ and regular season, too, truth be told _ with an efficient 5-1 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 41,121 fans at Target Field who probably have grown accustomed to the disappointment.
The Yankees will start the ALCS on Saturday either at the top-seeded Houston Astros or home against the wild-card Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa Bay stayed alive in that series earlier Monday with a 10-3 victory in Game 3.
Behind four scoreless innings from Luis Severino, a standout game on both sides of the ball from Gleyber Torres and an excellent defensive game overall, the Yankees won their 13th straight postseason game against the Twins, who have lost 16 straight postseason games overall.
Torres homered in the second and saved a run later in the game with an outstanding stop to end the fifth inning. Didi Gregorius had a pair of RBI singles, Brett Gardner singled home a run and defensive replacement Cameron Maybin hit a towering home run to leftfield in the ninth.
The Yankees, now 102-37 vs. Minnesota since 2002, including the postseason, also swept the Twins in the ALDS in 2009 and 2010 and beat them in the last three games of the 2004 ALDS.
After Maybin's homer and Gregorius' RBI single made it 5-1 in the ninth, Aroldis Chapman allowed a single by Marwin Gonzalez and walked C.J. Cron. He struck out Max Kepler before Gregorius laid out to his left to stab Jorge Polanco's line drive, likely robbing him of an extra-base hit up the alley. He then struck out Nelson Cruz looking to send the Yankees to the ALCS.
Minnesota went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base. After setting an MLB record with 307 home runs in the regular season _ one more than the Yankees _ the Twins managed only seven runs in the three ALDS games.
Severino, who missed most of spring training and didn't make his regular-season debut until Sept. 17, scattered four hits and walked two in his outing, striking out four.
He gave way to a well-rested bullpen that dominated for a third straight game in the series, with Aaron Boone rolling out Tommy Kahnle, Adam Ottavino, Chad Green, Zack Britton and Chapman. Britton allowed a home run by Eddie Rosario with none out in the eighth and then left with an apparent ankle injury.
Jake Odorizzi, who came in 7-9 with a 4.71 ERA in his career against the Yankees, including 1-1 with an 8.10 ERA this season, was OK but not quite good enough. He allowed two runs and five hits in five innings.
Torres gave the Yankees the lead for good with one out in the second, jumping on a first-pitch cutter that strayed invitingly over the middle of the plate and sending it just over the wall in left for his first postseason homer.
The game's key half-inning followed.
Rosario, who hit 32 homers during the season, led off by hammering a 1-and-2 fastball off the top of the rightfield wall, missing a tying homer by mere feet and settling for a double. Severino walked Mitch Garver on five pitches and Luis Arraez dumped a soft line-drive single to left to load the bases with none out for Miguel Sano.
The 6-4, 260-pound third baseman worked the count full but popped to first. Severino struck out Gonzalez swinging at a slider and finished deflating the roaring crowd, and the Twins, by striking out former Yankee Jake Cave looking at a slider.
The Yankees immediately tacked on.
Gio Urshela, 2-for-8 the first two games, started the third by lacing a 1-and-2 fastball to left-center for a double. DJ LeMahieu's groundout moved Urshela to third, but Aaron Judge struck out looking. Gardner, batting in the three-hole for a third straight game, came up with a big two-out hit, slicing a single to left past a diving Sano for a 2-0 lead.
Severino stranded two more in the bottom half, striking out Garver swinging at a 98-mph fastball and punctuating the K with an emphatic fist-pump as he came off the mound. His fourth and final inning was his best as Severino produced his first perfect inning, striking out one.
In the fifth, Kahnle allowed a leadoff single off the rightfield wall by Cave, and two outs later, Boone brought on Ottavino and his killer slider to face the dangerous Cruz. Ottavino walked him on four pitches and Green came on to face Rosario, who sent a sharp grounder to short right. Torres fielded the two-hopper on his knee with a sliding stop and threw in the dirt to first, but LeMahieu picked it before Rosario reached the bag, saving a run and producing hysterics in the visiting dugout.
After Arraez doubled off Green with one out in the sixth, Sano drilled one to right, where Judge needed all of his 6-7 frame to make a terrific leaping catch to save another run.
