Yankees Sweep Twins; Advance To ALCS

YANKEES 4

TWINS 1

The Yankee Express keeps rolling along.

For the first time in five years, the New York Yankees are going to participate in the American League Championship Series, after sweeping away the Minnestoa Twins 4-1 in game three of the ALDS.

The game started out as a pitching duel between Andy Pettitte, and former Yankee and hated enemy of Yankee fans, Carl Pavano. Yes, that's right Carl Pavano actually pitched, and pitched well.

The pair traded zeros through the games first five innings, as the Pavano struck out eight Yankees in that span, while Pettitte struck out five Twins.

Like they had in the first two games, the Twins were the ones who broke the ice. Joe Mauer's single to left field drove in Denard Span from second base to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. But, that quickly evaporated as their previous two leads in games one and two.

In the top of the seventh, Alex Rodriguez took Pavano deep for a solo homerun to right field to tie the game at one. Two batters later, Jorge Posada smacked a homerun to left to give the Bronx Bombers a 2-1 lead. Posada would add to his big night with a key RBI single in the ninth inning off of Minnesota closer Joe Nathanto give New York a 3-1 advantage.

Robinson Cano followed the Posada single with a RBI single of his own to drive in A-Rod to make it 4-1.

That was more than enough for Mariano Rivera who went an inning a third, striking out two Twins to earn the save.

The Yankees will now prepare for a very difficult series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels have owned the Yankees in the playoffs in this decade, beating the Bombers in the 2002 and 2005 ALDS. Will 2009 be any different, or will it be the same? That is why they play the games.