MINNEAPOLIS – Brad Radke pitched seven solid innings, Corey Koskie drove in three runs, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Yankees in the regular season for the first time since 2001 with an 8-2 victory last night.

Koskie and Justin Morneau each homered for Minnesota, which won for only fourth time in its last 12 games and handed the Yankees their second straight loss. The Twins, whose AL Central lead had been cut to one game Saturday, boosted it to 3 1 /2 games over second-place Cleveland.

Radke (8-6) gave up six hits, including a homer to Gary Sheffield, and struck out five. Juan Rincon escaped a bases-loaded, no out jam in the eighth, allowing only Hideki Matsui’s sacrifice fly. J.C. Romero worked a scoreless ninth.

The Twins had lost 13 straight regular-season games against the Yankees. Minnesota won the opener of last year’s first-round playoff series, then dropped three in a row.

Javier Vazquez (13-7) gave up nine hits, tying a season high, and six runs in 6 2 /3 innings. He allowed two homers, raising his season total to 26, fourth in the AL, one behind teammate Esteban Loaiza.

Vazquez, who missed his previous scheduled start at Texas because of conjunctivitis, first got into trouble in the second inning when Lew Ford sin gled to third and advanced to second when third baseman Miguel Cairo’s throw to first sailed high over John Olerud for an error. Koskie then homered into the upper deck.

One inning later, Morneau made it 3-0 with an even longer shot. Torii Hunter added an RBI single in the fifth.

Radke got out of a jam in the fourth after Bernie Williams and Matsui hit consecutive singles to put runners at the corners. But Radke got Jorge Posada swinging on a nasty changeup to end the threat.

Sheffield hit a solo homer off Radke in the sixth. Then, with runners at the corners again in the seventh, Radke got Enrique Wilson to pop out to center.