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          New York Yankees

          Rapid Reaction: Yankees 4, Twins 3

          • Kieran Darcy, ESPN Staff WriterAug 19, 2015, 08:01 PM
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              Kieran Darcy is an ESPN.com staff writer. He joined ESPN in August 2000 after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, where he played four years of JV basketball.
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          NEW YORK -- Nathan Eovaldi looked capable of perfection Wednesday afternoon before the sixth inning. And he still got a win, thanks to Greg Bird.

          The 22-year-old rookie first baseman hit his first and second major-league homers, driving in all four New York Yankees runs in a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

          The Yankees completed a three-game sweep and are now 67-52 on the season -- currently 1½ games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, who play Wednesday evening, in the American League East.

          The Twins dropped to 59-61.

          Man of the hour: Bird was called up from Triple-A six days ago and was only in the lineup because regular first baseman Mark Teixeira is out with a bone bruise on his shin.

          Nevertheless, Bird was the hitting hero Wednesday, delivering a two-run homer off Twins starter Ervin Santana in the fourth inning and another off Santana in the sixth. Carlos Beltran scored ahead of him each time, thanks to a single and a walk.

          These home runs weren't cheap, either -- Bird's first shot reached the second deck in right field and No. 2 landed in the Yankees' bullpen in right-center.

          Bird, a fifth-round draft pick in 2011, is batting .333 since being called up to the bigs.

          Perfect beginning: Eovaldi retired the first 16 batters he faced Wednesday and looked mighty impressive doing so, with six strikeouts and a fastball regularly hitting 100 mph on the radar gun.

          But things changed quickly after Chris Herrmann's one-out bloop single in the sixth inning. Shane Robinson followed with a single, Brian Dozier walked and Joe Mauer drove Herrmann and Robinson home with a single. The Twins tacked on a third run after Miguel Sano walked and Trevor Plouffe hit an infield single.

          Eovaldi evaded further trouble in the sixth and bounced back to pitch a 1-2-3 seventh. All in all, not a bad day for the 25-year-old, who improved his record to 13-2 and dropped his ERA to 4.24. Chasen Shreve and Dellin Betances handled the rest.

          What's next: A four-game series with the Cleveland Indians is next in the Bronx. On Thursday it'll be Ivan Nova (5-4, 3.57) starting for the Yankees, opposed by Josh Tomlin (0-1, 2.84), with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.