Yanks outlast Twins

NEW YORK – Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez stood together amid the roar in Yankee Stadium.

Teixeira had the chills. Rodriguez had a smile that said it all – a satisfied look after putting years of postseason failure behind him.

Teixeira hit a leadoff drive in the 11th inning to give New York a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night and a 2-0 lead in their A.L. Division Series. Game 2 was full of missed chances, plus a big miss by an umpire.

The first-year Yankees star connected against Jose Mijares, hitting a drive that skipped off the top of the left-field wall and into the rollicking, sellout crowd. He tossed aside his batting helmet as he approached home before being mobbed by his teammates as he hit home plate.

“I don’t think there’s anything better in sports,” Teixeira said. “Best place to play in the world.”

Rodriguez hit a tying, two-run homer off Joe Nathan in the ninth after a leadoff single by Teixeira. Rodriguez also had his third two-out RBI single of the series.

Before this series, the enigmatic slugger was hitless in his previous 18 playoff at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Minnesota was hurt by a blown call by left-field umpire Phil Cuzzi in the 11th. Joe Mauer started the inning with a drive down the line that appeared to go off Melky Cabrera’s glove before clearly landing about a foot inside the line and bouncing into the stands.

Cuzzi said it was foul and Mauer ended up with a single when he should have had a ground-rule double.

“You can’t see at all from the dugout, but I think we all know the ball was fair by a long ways,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Nathan watched the play on TV in the clubhouse.

“I wasn’t the only one who had a tough night,” Nathan said. “You don’t know how he missed it.”

Minnesota loaded the bases with no outs but failed to score when David Robertson retired three straight batters.