A-Rod's grand slam in seventh lifts Yankees, 8-4

Manager Ron Gardenhire probably knew his Twins hadn't won a game at Yankee Stadium since July 5, 2007, going into Friday night's series opener. Perhaps he figured the law of averages had his club due.

And Gardenhire must have known Alex Rodriguez was 4-for-6 with three home runs off righthander Matt Guerrier when he ordered Mark Teixeira walked intentionally to load the bases and brought Guerrier in to face A-Rod with the Twins leading by a run in the seventh, right? Must have been counting on that law of averages thing again.

But Rodriguez made Gardenhire's strategy look highly questionable, launching a grand slam into the box seats in leftfield to put the Yankees ahead by three runs en route to an 8-4 win.

Rodriguez said he didn't know his numbers against Guerrier. Joe Girardi, asked if he knew, took a drink of water and said, "Mmmm-hmmm."

Gardenhire, whom A-Rod called "one of my favorite guys in baseball," said: "Always aware of numbers. But Matty's our best righthanded [setup] reliever . . . and that's who we had up there in that situation. Sometimes you can't do anything about the numbers. Matty's got to come in there, the bases are loaded and you've got a righthander up there . . . Numbers aren't everything.''

It was the 587th homer of A-Rod's career, breaking a tie with Frank Robinson and giving him sole possession of seventh place on the all-time list. Next up: Sammy Sosa at 609.

A-Rod received a curtain call for his blast, which gave the Yankees their 11th straight home win against the Twins, including last year's postseason. The Yankees were 10-0 overall against Minnesota in 2009.

The Yankees overcame a poor performance by Damaso Marte, who allowed the tying and go-ahead runs to score in the top of the seventh after starter A.J. Burnett departed with a 3-2 lead. Marte was so brief and ineffective - allowing an RBI single by Joe Mauer and an RBI double by Justin Morneau - that official scorer Bill Shannon awarded the victory to Joba Chamberlain, who struck out the side in the eighth for the second time in three outings.

On the down side was the loss of Nick Swisher, who left the game after three innings with a recurrence of left biceps soreness. Results of an MRI were negative; Swisher has a slight strain that bothers him when he bats lefthanded. Girardi said he could be back in the lineup Saturday against lefty Francisco Liriano.

Swisher was in the MRI tube when, with the Yankees trailing 4-3, Francisco Cervelli led off the seventh with an infield single against Scott Baker. Derek Jeter lined a shot off Baker's shin that caromed into short rightfield for a double. Baker was replaced by lefthander Brian Duensing, who got Brett Gardner to fly to short left. Gardenhire then had Duensing walk Teixeira and called in Guerrier to face Rodriguez. On his 0-and-1 pitch, A-Rod hit his 19th career grand slam.

It was only the 15th time in Rodriguez's career that a batter was intentionally walked to load the bases for him, according to STATS LLC. The last six occasions have been walks to Teixeira. A-Rod is 4-for-4 with two homers and 14 RBIs after those six intentional walks to Teixeira, according to STATS LLC. Said Rodriguez, "Those numbers - you've still got to go out and get a good pitch to hit and execute."