Yanks beat Twins again; take Sunday finale 3-0

The New York Yankees finished their season series at Target Field Sunday afternoon by taking out the Twins 3-0; they win 3 out of 4 on the weekend to stay a half game ahead of the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. The game featured homeruns by Curtis Granderson and Mark Texiera. Granderson's was an inside-the-park homerun, the first in Target Field history.

TWINS NOTES: ¬

• According to the Elias Sports Bureau, today's game featured two players with at least 600 career home runs since Willie Mays and Hank Aaron played each other for the last time, July 17, 1973...today's game was the first time it happened in the American League.

• The Twins lost their fourth straight series at home...they are now 14-22-5 in series play overall in 2011...Twins shutout for the ninth time this season.
• The Curtis Granderson inside-the-park home run was the second allowed by the Twins this season, the other coming on June 25 at Milwaukee (Yuniesky Betancourt)...it marked the 36th inside-the-park home run allowed by the Twins during their club's history...it was the first ever at Target Field.

• Nick Blackburn left today's start with a right lateral forearm strain and will be re-evaluated tomorrow...he walked four of the eight batters he faced.

• Anthony Swarzak has posted an ERA of 3.09 (35.0 ip, 12 er) in 15 relief appearances this season.

• With one steal today Ben Revere now needs two to tie Chuck Knoblauch and Willie Norwood (25 each) for second on the Twins All-Time rookie steals list.

• Joe Mauer (3-for-4) is batting .349 (29-for-83) with four doubles, two home runs, 10 rbi and nine runs scored in his last 21 regular and postseason games against the Yankees...Mauer played his 14th game at firstbase and is batting .460 (23-for-50) while at the position.

• Jim Thome drew his 1,713th career walk in the eighth inning and now needs 20 walks to tie Mickey Mantle (1,733) for seventh on baseball's All-Time list.

• The Twins recorded their 53rd sellout of the 2011 season tonight...they have sold out 36 games in a row and 43 of their last 44 games since May 25 of this year...since opening Target Field in 2010, the Twins have sold out 132 of 142 regular season home games...through 61 home dates in 2011, the Twins have drawn a total of 2,411,459 for an average of 39,532 (100% of Capacity).

• The four-game series with the Yankees drew a total of 164,950 in attendance, marking the most for a four-game series in Target Field's history.