Young, Mauer Power Twins Over Yankees

MINNEAPOLIS — A pair of former no. 1 overall picks finally showed some power for the Minnesota Twins.

Delmon Young had three doubles and three RBIs and Joe Mauer hit his long-awaited first homer of the season to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 6-5 victory over the Yankees on last night.

Young's breakout performance at the plate comes after a rough first two months in Minnesota. He entered the game hitting .264 with no homers and just 15 RBIs after coming over in a trade from Tampa Bay.

The 22-year-old had RBI-doubles in the second and sixth innings before giving the Twins the lead for good with another two-bagger off Kyle Farnsworth (0-2) that scored Michael Cuddyer in the eighth.

The only thing Twins fans have been waiting to see longer came in the seventh, when Mauer hit a solo homer to tie the game 5-5 and ruin Andy Pettitte's bid for his 170th victory as a Yankee, which would have tied him with Ron Guidry for fourth on the Yankees career list.

Despite his AL batting title in 2006 and a gaudy .315 average entering Monday night's game, the hometown fans have constantly been wondering when they were going to see the 6-foot-5, 230-pound lefty with the sweet swing put one in the seats.

His first home run since September 29 slammed off the facing of the upper deck in right field and helped the Twins earn a split over the Yankees.

Joe Nathan picked up his 15th save in 16 chances and Matt Guerrier (3-1) pitched 1 2-3 innings of scoreless relief for the win.

Alex Rodriguez continued his staggering dominance in the Metrodome with three hits, including a homer, a double and two RBIs and now has a .379 career average under the Teflon roof, higher than any other player with at least 175 at-bats there.

He singled off Nathan in the ninth, but Hideki Matsui grounded into a double play and Jason Giambi lined out to center field to drop the Yankees to 3-4 on the road trip.