Yankees Rally in 8th to Beat Royals

By The Associated Press

After getting swept in three games at Kansas City last year, the New York Yankees trailed the Royals by four runs in the eighth inning. Then they steamrolled the Royals with a rally to remember.

Jorge Posada started a 10-run, eighth-inning comeback with a two-run homer and Robinson Cano capped it with a three-run drive to lead the Yankees over Kansas City 12-5 Monday night.

"We’re not clicking on all cylinders, and we’re able to go out and do what we did tonight," Johnny Damon said.

Bobby Abreu had four RBIs for the Yankees (82-54), who moved a season-high 28 games over .500 and maintained a nine-game lead in the AL East over second-place Boston. New York figures to get Hideki Matsui back from a broken wrist next week and Gary Sheffield could return from wrist surgery soon after that.

"It’s all about confidence," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "They don’t feel like there’s anything they can’t do offensively."

In other AL games, it was: Minnesota 2, Tampa Bay 1; Boston 3, Chicago 2 in 10 innings; Detroit 6, Seattle 2; Los Angeles 1, Baltimore 0; Texas 8, Oakland 1; and Toronto 4, Cleveland 3.

At Kansas City, Derek Jeter stretched his hitting streak to 15 games and passed Phil Rizzuto for the most games played by Yankees shortstop with 1,648. He was 3-for-6 and raised his average to .344, two points behind Minnesota’s Joe Mauer, the AL batting leader.

Damon greeted Andrew Sisco with a tying, two-run single, and Bobby Abreu lined a two-run double off the wall in straightaway center with one out for 7-5 lead.

T.J. Beam (2-0) got one out for the win. Royals starter Luke Hudson had struck out a career-high 10, the most by a Kansas City pitcher in five years, when he turned it over to Jimmy Gobble in the eighth.

"I’m going to try to get this one out of my system right now," Royals manager Buddy Bell said.

Twins 2, Devil Rays 1

Rondell White hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh off Tim Corcoran (4-7), his first in 61 at-bats at Tampa Bay, and Minnesota regained the wild-card lead by moving a half-game ahead of the White Sox. The Twins have won 13 in a row against Tampa Bay.

Boof Bonser (4-5), pitching for the first time in his hometown, allowed one run and five hits in 6 1-3 innings to get the win. He departed after center fielder Torii Hunter made a leaping catch at the wall on Kevin Witt’s drive leading off the seventh.

Joe Nathan pitched the ninth for his 29th save.

Red Sox 3, White Sox 2

Sparked by the return of Manny Ramirez, Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek, the Red Sox tied the score in the ninth and won on Carlos Pena’s home run off Brandon McCarthy (3-6) leading off the 10th at Fenway Park.

Boston, which won for just the third time in 10 games, trailed 2-1 in the ninth when Ramirez walked on four pitches leading off against Bobby Jenks. He moved to second on Nixon’s groundout to first, then scored on Mike Lowell’s double into the left-field corner. It was just the third blown save in 42 chances for Jenks.

Pena’s homer was his first since last Oct. 2. Mike Timlin (6-4) pitched a hitless inning for Boston, which trails the Twins by six games in the wild-card race.

Tigers 6, Mariners 2

Omar Infante’s two-run double keyed a four-run seventh and Nate Robertson (12-11) allowed one run and eight hits in seven innings for Detroit, which increased its AL Central lead to five games.

Jarrod Washburn (8-13) lost for the second time in six starts, giving up six runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings. Detroit had lost eight of 11, while the Mariners are 1-14 in their last 15 road games.

Angels 1, Orioles 0

Jered Weaver (10-2) scattered six hits over seven innings, struck out five and walked one to get the win at Anaheim.

Francisco Rodriguez got three outs for his 39th save, tying Chicago’s Bobby Jenks for the major league lead. Los Angeles closed within 6 1/2 games of Oakland, the AL West leader.

Juan Rivera doubled in the fourth against Rodrigo Lopez (9-15) and scored on a two-out single by Adam Kennedy.

Rangers 8, Athletics 1

Texas rookie Nelson Cruz hit an inside-the-park homer and a three-run shot on the way to a career-high five RBIs.

Robinson Tejeda (4-3) took a shutout into the seventh at Oakland, Ian Kinsler added a solo homer and Eric Young hit a two-run double in his first big league at-bat in more than a month.

Frank Thomas singled in Oakland’s only run – it was unearned – in the seventh, and the Big Hurt tied Fred McGriff for 36th on the RBIs list at 1,550.

Barry Zito (15-9) allowed seven runs, six hits and six walks in 5 1-3 innings.

Blue Jays 4, Indians 3

Vernon Wells and Reed Johnson homered at Toronto.

With the score 2-2, Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia (10-9) walked Aaron Hill starting the sixth and then Wells hit a 0-2 pitch over the right-field wall for his 31st homer.

Brandon League (1-2) pitched an inning, and B.J Ryan got six outs for his 30th save.