Appier Makes Himself at Home in Royal Win

Kevin Appier reintroduced himself to the Kauffman Stadium crowd with six innings of three-hit ball Wednesday as the Kansas City Royals routed the New York Yankees, 11-0, and won their first home series from them since 1993.

Mike Sweeney drove in four runs and Brent Mayne had four hits for the Royals, whose $41-million payroll is less than one-quarter of the $180 million carried by the Yankees.

By taking two of the three games, the Central Division leaders won their first home series from the Yankees since Sept. 10-12, 1993. Until this week, the Yankees hadn’t lost a game in Kansas City since 2000.

Appier (8-8), the one-time ace of the Kansas City staff who was traded in 1999, walked one and struck out two in his first home start since the Royals picked him up on Aug. 6, a week after he was released by the Angels.

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Cleveland 5, Minnesota 0 -- Ryan Ludwick hit a run-scoring single and the Indians scored four more times in the 14th inning at Minneapolis. It was the longest scoreless game in the major leagues since the Chicago Cubs beat Houston, 1-0, in 16 innings on May 31 at Wrigley Field.

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Seattle 13, Toronto 6 -- Ichiro Suzuki and Randy Winn each had a triple and finished with three RBIs and three runs scored at Seattle to help the Mariners extend their lead over Oakland in the West Division to four games. Bret Boone drove in three runs to boost his season total to 95 -- third-best in the league.

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Boston 7, Oakland 3 -- Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar homered and drove in three runs apiece at Oakland as the Red Sox pulled even with the A’s in the wild-card race. The Red Sox won for the second time in seven games.

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Texas 7, Detroit 3 -- Rafael Palmeiro hit a three-run homer and Alex Rodriguez had a two-run shot to lead the Rangers at Arlington, Texas.

The Rangers took a 3-0 lead in the first as Tiger starter Mike Maroth (6-17) threw 41 pitches. Palmeiro’s 29th homer in the second inning gave the Rangers a 6-1 lead. Rodriguez hit his 32nd -- and seventh in 12 games in August -- in the first.

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Tampa Bay 6, Baltimore 5 -- Travis Lee’s run-scoring double in the 10th inning at St. Petersburg, Fla., gave the Devil Rays a three-game sweep. They improved to 16-11 since the All-Star break.