Canó singled again in the bottom of the fourth inning. And the next batter, Marcus Thames, who had a successful record against the left-handed pitcher, Brian Duensing, this year, hit the first pitch he saw into the right field stands, for a two-run homerun. Later Curtis Granderson walked, stole second, and advanced to third on Joe Mauer's throwing error. Brett Gardner's RBI sacrifice fly scored Granderson to make the score 5–0. Later Nick Swisher's solo homer in the bottom of the seventh inning increased the lead to six.

After being shut down by Hughes for seven innings, the Twins finally got on board in the top of the eighth inning. Danny Valencia hit a lead-off double off Yankees reliever Kerry Wood. After J. J. Hardy flew out, both Denard Span and Orlando Hudson singled to score Valencia. Wood was removed from the game after walking Mauer. But Yankees relievers Boone Logan and David Robertson induced a popout and a flyout respectively to get out of the one-out bases-loaded jam. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth for the series sweep.

This was the first time that the Yankees advanced to the second round of the postseason as the Wild Card (they lost all three in 1995, 1997, and 2007), and this win marked the ninth time the Yankees advanced to the LCS since 1995, the most in MLB. The Minnesota Twins, with this loss, extended their postseason losing streak to twelve games, with nine of those coming against the Yankees.