on the SIDELINES

Yankees advance to next round\nMINNEAPOLIS -- The New York Yankees sure got back to their postseason best in a hurry.\nThe Yankees hit four doubles in a six-run fourth inning Sunday, giving David Wells a big lead and breezing into the AL championship series with an 8-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.\nAfter a sloppy loss in the opener that brought back memories of last year's first-round flop against Anaheim, New York beat the Twins three straight times to clinch the AL division series 3-1.\nA rested Yankees team will open the AL championship series Wednesday night at home against Oakland or Boston.\nWells improved to 9-2 lifetime in the postseason by going 7 2-3 innings for the Yankees, who sent 12 batters to the plate in the fourth and knocked out Twins starter Johan Santana.\nRed Sox force game 5 in Oakland\nBOSTON -- The "M-V-P" chants hadn't been heard at Fenway Park in a while -- at least not when David Ortiz was at the plate.\nAfter a career year that carried the Red Sox into the playoffs and transformed him from a spare part to a star, Ortiz was hitless in his first 16 at-bats of Boston's playoff series against Oakland.\nAll it took for the cheers to return was one more clutch hit.\nThe Red Sox designated hitter snapped out of his slump and saved the season with a two-run double off closer Keith Foulke in the eighth inning Sunday as Boston rallied to beat the Athletics 5-4 and send the series to a decisive fifth game.\n"David was holding his head down quite a bit, but we were telling him he has a great shot of being MVP," said Boston outfielder Johnny Damon, who homered and threw out a runner at third. "Zero-for-16 doesn't make or break a year, but that one hit you got certainly does."\nIt was the eighth consecutive elimination game Oakland has lost -- the longest slump of its sort in major league history. Despite making the playoffs each of the last four seasons, the A's have yet to advance past the first round.