It’s a Power Sweep for Yankees Again

The Minnesota Twins were glad to see the New York Yankees leave town Monday.

Alfonso Soriano hit a grand slam and Nick Johnson homered twice to give David Wells more than enough support as the Yankees completed their second straight season sweep of the Twins with a 15-1 victory at Minneapolis.

“We got lambasted,” Twin Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’re a long way from being in their league, from what I saw out there.”

The Yankees won all four games in this series and have beaten the Twins 13 straight times the past two seasons, out-homering them, 31-3, in that span.

“I’d like to give you my glove and let you try to face that lineup,” Minnesota starter Rick Reed told reporters after giving up a career-high 11 runs.

Wells, who pitched a perfect game against Minnesota in 1998, ran the rotation’s record this season to 14-0 -- the longest winning streak to start a season since 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Wells (3-0) pitched a seven-hitter for his second complete game of the season, both against the Twins. Dustan Mohr spoiled the shutout bid in the eighth with his second home run of the season.

But by then it was too late.

Erick Almonte had a career-high three hits and Raul Mondesi went three for four for the Yankees, who had 14 hits and lead the majors with 39 home runs.

“Our confidence is sky high right now,” Manager Joe Torre said.

New York has more home runs than Detroit has runs (34) this season.

“Everything we threw up there, they whacked,” Gardenhire said.

Cleveland 9, Chicago 2 -- Ellis Burks and Karim Garcia each homered twice for the Indians at Chicago. It was the second straight victory for Cleveland, which hasn’t done that since the season-opening series at Baltimore. After hitting only 11 home runs in three weeks, the Indians have now hit five in the last two days.

Carlos Lee homered in his fifth straight game for Chicago, matching a club record.

Toronto 11, Boston 6 -- Chris Woodward’s homer keyed a 17-hit effort and Greg Myers homered and drove in four runs to help the Blue Jays win at Boston and end the Red Sox’s seven-game winning streak. Toronto broke its four-game losing streak with only its second win in 12 games.

Baltimore 4, Tampa Bay 0 -- Rick Helling gave up four hits in eight innings and Jerry Hairston hit a two-run homer for the host Orioles, who won for the fifth time in six games. Attendance was 18,017 -- the smallest crowd in Camden Yards’ 12-year history.