MINNEAPOLIS — Gary Sanchez reminded everyone what type of presence he can be in the middle of the Yankees’ order by reaching the upper deck in left field for the game’s first run.

Miguel Andujar had one hit, but it keyed a six-run seventh inning and allowed the Yankees to exhale after being smothered by a recent run of terrible clutch hitting.

Giancarlo Stanton and Brett Gardner displayed signs of escaping hitting funks.

And the six scoreless innings delivered by J.A. Happ in a 7-2 win over the Twins on Monday night at Target Field in front of 21,565 was the most important development to come out of the victory that stretched the Yankees’ wild-card lead over the A’s to three lengths with 18 games left.

It was the Yankees’ eighth straight win over the Twins, against whom the Yankees are 19-4 against since June 25, 2015. They are 83-31 against Minnesota since 2002.

“The key is to get strike one again,’’ said Happ, who has gone six or more innings in six of his eight starts for the Yankees since arriving in late July from the Blue Jays.

Happ improved to 6-0 in seven starts as a Yankee and 16-6 overall. Sixteen wins is nice, but with the Yankees looking to make a decision on who will start the wild-card game against the A’s, the half-dozen wins are more important to that process.

Aaron Boone never mentioned “auditions’’ for who gets the ball against the A’s, but he did say that pitcher would come from the final three weeks of the season. Based on that thinking, Masahiro Tanaka and Happ are ahead of Luis Severino, who until a recent bad streak of 11 starts was a lock for that honor.

When Sanchez’s 460-foot homer landed in the third deck in left Happ had a run in the fifth that opposing starter Kyle Gibson didn’t because, facing a Minnesota lineup that had a combined six more homers than Stanton alone coming into the game, the veteran lefty held the Twins hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position through five innings.

The biggest play made behind Happ was Brett Gardner flagging down Gregorio Petit’s line drive with a tumbling catch for the final out and two runners on in the second.

“I thought it was going to hang up but you never know for sure,’’ Happ said of Gardner’s grab. “I was hoping he would get there and he made a nice play.’’

Feeding Williams Astudillo an inning-ending double play in the fourth helped, too. And Happ caught Joe Mauer looking for the final out in the fifth with Petit on second.

Sanchez’s defensive woes have dominated a season in which he has been on the disabled list twice with right groin issues. So much so that his .181 batting average entering the game had been slightly overlooked. After striking out in the second and getting robbed of a hit in the fourth, nothing pointed to a 460-foot homer, the longest at Target Field this season, coming out of his third at-bat.

“I don’t care about distance. If it goes over the fence and 320 [feet], I am OK with that,’’ said Sanchez, who added an RBI single and a double to the cause.

With Aaron Judge still out and nobody knowing when he will return and Stanton in a 5-for-37 (.135) slump, Sanchez showing life at the plate is welcome. So, too, is Andujar’s 40 doubles, 23 homers, 79 RBIs and .298 batting average.

Yet, at this point of the season and with what is on the line, Happ’s performance carried more weight than the solid work of the stick men.