Major League Baseball

FOR YANKS, IT'S SHORT & SWEEP - HUGHES, BOMBERS MAKE IT LOOK EASY

Published Oct. 11, 2010 10:10 p.m. ET

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Champagne flowed and the music made it hard to hear, but the message bouncing off the clubhouse walls was easy to receive.

"We know what the goal is, this is the first step," Alex Rodriguez said after the Yankees completed their sweep of the Twins in the ALDS with a 6-1 win last night at Yankee Stadium in front of 50,840.

As always, the goal is to win the World Series. The way the Yankees dispatched a good, but not great, Twins club, it will be hard to bet against them in the upcoming ALCS no matter the opponent.

The Yankees will open the ALCS on the road on Friday against the winner of the Texas-Tampa Bay bestoffive ALDS, which the Rangers lead 2-1 going into tonight.

With Hank Steinbrenner, the man who wanted to trade him to Minnesota after the 2007 season for Johan Santana at the Stadium, Phil Hughes delivered a sensational performance in his first postseason start.

Hughes retired the first nine batters, didn't allow a runner past first until the fifth and worked out of jams in the fifth and sixth. In seven scoreless innings, Hughes allowed four hits, walked one and fanned six.

How glad must Steinbrenner and his family be that general manager Brian Cashman didn't want to trade Hughes for Santana and then sign the talented lefty to a mega-money deal. Cashman didn't want to lose Hughes and he wanted to use the money for CC Sabathia the following winter.

Hughes and Sabathia pitched two of the three games against the Twins.

It's the fourth time the Yankees have ousted the Twins in the ALDS, having done it in 2003, 2004 and 2009.

"I felt like from pitch one that I had good stuff," Hughes said. "It was a matter of keeping my emotions in check and making sure I threw strikes and was ahead in the count."

Marcus Thames supplied a two-run homer in the three-run fourth when the Yankees chased Twins starter Brian Duensing. Nick Swisher added a solo blast in the seventh.

Hughes' first jam surfaced in the fifth when he gave up a one-out single to Delmon Young and walked Jim Thome and the Yankees leading, 5-0.

He responded by fanning Michael Cuddyer on a perfectly placed 94-mph, 1-2 fastball on the outside corner that Cuddyer flailed at.

Hughes finished the inning by getting Danny Valencia to pop up on a 3-2 fastball.

"Those innings where you have runners on base and you are in those jams, you have to find your way out of it," Hughes said. "I couldn't go to my curveball late in counts because it wasn't as sharp as I would have liked."

The Twins put two runners on with two outs in the sixth, but Hughes fanned cleanup hitter Jason Kubel with a 93-mph fastball that Kubel was way late on.

Kerry Wood replaced Hughes to start the eighth and four of the five batters he faced reached base via three hits and a walk.

With a 6-1 lead, the bases loaded and one out, manager Joe Girardi called for lefty Boone Logan to face Jim Thome. One pitch later Thome popped up, and David Robertson surfaced from the pen to pitch to Delmon Young.

Three pitches later Young lifted a stress-free fly to center and leave the bases full.

Armed with a five-run lead, Mariano Rivera continued his strong postseason with a perfect ninth.

From there it was to the clubhouse for a celebration that included champagne but was relatively subdued.

As Rodriguez said, the goal is still in the distance. Because of Hughes, it's in sight.

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