MINNEAPOLIS - Mark Teixeira's career-long homer drought is finally over.
After sending a Francisco Liriano fastball about 420 feet into the Metrodome seats yesterday, Teixeira thinks his next long ball may not be far behind.
Teixeira ended a 23-game homerless stretch and the New York Yankees completed a season sweep of the Minnesota Twins with a 6-4 victory.
"I'm a streaky home run hitter, and they come in bunches," Teixeira said. "And after hitting a bunch in a row it took a while to get another one."
Teixeira, who managed to keep his average and on-base percentage high through his power outage, connected on the first pitch of the fifth inning. It was his 21st homer of the season and first in 96 at-bats, dating to June 12 against the Mets.
Was it starting to wear on him?
"Not at all," he said. "We're playing so much great baseball. I'm getting on base. I'm still hitting the ball; I'm just not getting that lift."
Mariano Rivera picked up his 23d save for the Yankees, who have won eight straight on the road and beat the Twins all seven times they met this season.
Liriano (4-9) gave up six runs - three earned - on seven hits in 51/3 innings for the Twins, who have lost 18 of their last 24 against New York.
Twins all-star first baseman Justin Morneau was 0 for 4 and went 0 for 10 in the series.
New York moved Alfredo Aceves from the bullpen for a spot start in place of the injured Chien-Ming Wang. Aceves gave up four runs - two charged to him when reliever David Robertson walked Denard Span and Matt Tolbert with the bases loaded in the fourth - on four hits in 31/3 innings.
Robertson's walks were the only hiccups for the sterling New York bullpen. The relievers combined to allow two hits and no runs over the final 52/3 innings.
New York 030 210 000 – 6 8 2
Minnesota 020 200 000 – 4 6 1
New York AB R H BI Avg. Minnesota AB R H BI Avg.
Jeter ss 4 0 1 1 .314 Span cf 4 0 0 1 .288
Swisher rf 5 0 0 0 .239 Tolbert 2b 3 0 0 1 .178
Teixeira 1b 4 1 1 1 .281 b-B.Harris ph 1 0 1 0 .268
A.Rodriguez dh 3 1 1 0 .247 Mauer dh 5 0 2 0 .389
