The Twins have risen to the top of the AL Central in both payroll and performance, and they fancy themselves among baseball’s best teams.

But if the Yankees are any kind of measuring stick for Minnesota, the Twins came up painfully short yesterday.

The Bombers drilled Minnesota 7-3 in the Yankees’ home opener. It’s clear the Twins need to find a way to beat a Yankee team that has taken their measure repeatedly.

Minnesota has lost seven straight to the Yanks after getting swept last year, and four in row overall. Can they fare better against a Bomber squad devoid of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Steve Karsay?

“I don’t know, we’ve never done it before,” Twin manager Ron Gardenhire. “That’s good for us. Any time you face the Yankees and one of their main guns isn’t there, that’s good for us.

“They can score runs, their pitching is deep. I’ll let you know in a few days. We play them seven times in the next few weeks. We’ll get a good look at them, then we don’t have to mess with them again.”

Last season the Twins didn’t manage a single win over the Yanks, the first-ever season-series sweep in the 100-year history between the franchises, dating to when the Twins were the original Washington Senators.

But this season was supposed to be different for a growing Minnesota team that had finally opened up the coffers.

Just four years ago the Twins had a bare-bones $16.4 million payroll. But owner Carl Pohlad went over budget to sign Kenny Rogers and push the payroll to an AL Central-leading $55.6 million.

Yesterday’s performance was hardly championship-caliber.

Starter Joe Mays got strafed for eight hits and seven earned runs in five ineffective innings, lowlighted by a belt-high, full-count pitch that Hideki Matsui hit into the bleachers for a grand slam.

“We started off in Detroit and played three pretty good baseball games there and pitched well,” Gardenhire said. “[The Twins] went home and played terrible. We didn’t hit at home, we just played bad baseball, didn’t get it done.”