"There have been evenings this season when you watched the Yankees and truly believed they should be the favorites to win the World Series.

Of course, there have also been nights when you wondered if Peggy Lee had the Yankees in mind when she crooned "Is That All There Is."

Last night at Target Field, a jewel of a baseball stadium, the Yankees answered to Jekyll and Hyde in an 8-4 victory over the Twins that was witnessed by 41,126 on a perfect summer night.

Five of CC Sabathia's seven frames were scoreless but he gave up two in the second and two in the seventh and surrendered 10 hits. It wasn't a dominating performance but did stop a personal two-game losing streak and hike Sabathia's record to 17-7.

With Alex Rodriguez' return looming — think tomorrow night — the Yankees received homers from Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones. The last two came back-to-back in the fifth with Jones banging his off the facing of the upper deck in left field, 434 feet from the plate.

Francisco Cervelli added a two-run single in the ninth that kept Mariano Rivera out of the game.

The Yankees' fourth win in five games enabled them to stay one-half length in front of the Red Sox in the AL East. Boston beat the Royals, 4-3, last night."