Yankees rally with 10-run eighth at Royals

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.