Gary Sanchez hit a long homer in the sixth inning, J.A. Happ pitched six scoreless innings and the New York Yankees scored six runs in the seventh inning of a 7-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins Monday at Target Field.

Sanchez hit his second home run since returning from the disabled list on Sept. 1 due to a groin injury and his 16th homer of the season.

The catcher gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead when he hammered a 2-2 fastball at the knees from Kyle Gibson (7-13) into the third deck in left field. Sanchez's blast traveled an estimated 460 feet and was his second homer to travel at least 460 feet this year.

Sanchez also fell a triple shy of the cycle and posted his fourth game with at least three hits.

Happ (16-6) improved to 6-0 since joining the Yankees in a trade from Toronto on July 26. He allowed six hits, struck out three, walked none and threw 91 pitches before the Yankees blew it open.

Happ's biggest strikeout of the game was in the fifth when he fanned Joe Mauer on a close pitch with a runner at second in a scoreless contest.

Rookie Miguel Andujar added a booming double off the right-center field wall in the seventh against Alan Busenitz. It gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead and marked Andujar's 40th double of the season.

Andujar joined Joe DiMaggio, Bob Meusel and Hideki Matsui as the fourth Yankees player to get at least 40 doubles in their rookie seasons.

Giancarlo Stanton added an RBI double immediately after Andujar's latest hit as the Yankees improved to 4-3 on their nine-game trip and moved three games ahead of the idle Oakland Athletics for home-field advantage in the wild-card race.

Didi Gregorius made it 5-0 with a double down the right-field line off Andrew Vasquez.

Rookie Gleyber Torres added a bases-loaded RBI single on a sinking liner that went off right fielder Robbie Grossman's glove.

Andrew McCutchen walked three times and reached four times for the Yankees. He added a sacrifice fly to make it 7-0.

Gibson allowed one run on four hits in 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander took his third straight loss while throwing 118 pitches.

Grossman hit an RBI double and Mitch Garver had a run-scoring groundout off Luis Cessa in the eighth as the Twins lost for the eighth time in 11 games.

--Field Level Media