The Kansas City Royals played the spoiler role to perfection.

The last-place Royals capped Detroit's late season free-fall by sweeping the Tigers and denying them the AL Central title.

Needing one more victory to clinch the division, the sagging Tigers capped a five-game losing streak with Sunday's disappointment _ wasting a six-run lead and then watching all-star starter Kenny Rogers lose in relief 10-8 to the Royals in 12 innings.

The Tigers settle for the wild card and head to Yankee Stadium to start the playoffs, knowing all too well how close they were to winning the Central and opening at home.

``We got beat,'' Tigers centre-fielder Curtis Granderson said. ``Kansas City played great. They outhit us, they outscored us and we ended up getting swept by them.''

Detroit will open the playoffs on the road Tuesday night against the Yankees.

``Once we get to New York, we'll be ready to go,'' first baseman Sean Casey said. ``It's a new season come Tuesday night.''

Nate Robertson will start for Detroit in Game 1 and rookie Justin Verlander (17-9) is scheduled to pitch Game 2.

``It's a lot easier to beat them three out of five than four out of seven,'' Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. ``We needed our pitchers to give us more than we got in the last five days. If we keep pitching like this, nothing else is going to matter.''

Elsewhere in the AL it was: Twins 5, White Sox 1; Toronto 7, New York 5; Oakland 11, Los Angeles 10 (10 innings); Boston 9, Baltimore 0 (5 innings); Cleveland 6, Tampa Bay 3; and Seattle 3, Texas 2.

At Detroit, Esteban German's RBI single and Emil Brown's bases-loaded walk off Rogers won it for the Royals. Rogers made his first relief appearance since 2003 as the Tigers played to win, having seen the Twins' victory over Chicago posted on the scoreboard.

Jimmy Gobble (4-6) was the winning pitcher.

``It nice to be on the winning side, but you can't take anything away from the Tigers, they had a great season,'' Gobble said.

The Tigers rushed to a 6-0 lead behind Bonderman, scoring five times in the third. Craig Monroe, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen all doubled before Inge hit his 27th home run.

Down 7-4, the Royals rallied for four runs in the eighth. A throwing error by Inge from third base set up David DeJesus' infield single off Todd Jones, putting Kansas City ahead 8-7.

Matt Stairs of Fredericton, who isn't eligible for the post-season roster, tied it with a pinch-hit homer in the eighth off Scott Dohmann.

The Tigers tried to win it in the 11th. Magglio Ordonez hit a one-out single, Carlos Guillen also singled and the runners moved up on right fielder Mitch Maier's throwing error.

Reliever Joe Nelson intentionally walked Ivan Rodriguez to load the bases, then struck out Inge. Gobble then came in and fanned Granderson.

Angel Berroa started the Royals 12th with a single. One out later, Angel Sanchez singled and Joey Gathright walked to load the bases.

German hit a go-ahead single and after DeJesus grounded into a forceout at the plate, Rogers walked Brown to force home the 10th run.

The Royals began their comeback from a 6-0 deficit when Brown's two-run double keyed a three-run fourth.

In the fifth, a fan interfered with German's RBI double down the left-field line, finishing Bonderman, who exited to a standing ovation. Joel Zumaya pitched two scoreless innings in relief.

Rodriguez hit an RBI triple in the fifth that made it 7-4.

Rogers (17-8) and Jeremy Bonderman (14-8), who both pitched in Sunday's season finale, will start the next two games, if necessary, at Comerica Park.

Minnesota wound up as the Central champion, and will start the playoffs at home against Oakland.

``Congratulations to the Minnesota Twins. I take my hat off to them, they did a great job this year,'' Leyland said.

If the Tigers had won, they would've finished with an identical 96-66 record as the Twins _ and Detroit would've won the division crown because of its 11-8 mark against Minnesota.

The Royals, tied with Tampa Bay for the worst record in the majors, completed their first three-game sweep in Detroit since 1980.

``It was neat to see our kids play and fight hard,'' interim Royals manager Bill Doran said. ``Maybe they can learn something and grow from what they did this weekend.''

Twins 5, White Sox 1

At Minneapolis, the Twins took home another AL Central championship and Joe Mauer became the first catcher to win an American League batting title by getting two hits in a victory over Chicago.

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Blue Jays 7, Yankees 5

At New York, Toronto finished second in the AL East with a win over the playoff-bound Yankees. The Blue Jays finished with an 87-75 record and ended a run of eight straight second-place finishes by Boston. With the game tied 5-5 in the ninth, Adam Lind hit a two-run, two-out homer off Kyle Farnsworth.

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Athletics 11, Angels 10 (10 innings)

At Anaheim, Calif., Brendan Donnelly's throwing error enabled Jeremy Brown to score the go-ahead run in the 10th inning, and Oakland avoided being swept by Los Angeles in a season-ending four-game series.

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Red Sox 9, Orioles 0 (five innings)

At Boston, Devern Hansack pitched no-hit ball for five innings before the game was called because of rain, giving Boston a win _ but not giving the Red Sox rookie official credit for a no-hitter.

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Indians 6, Devil Rays 3

At Cleveland, Cliff Lee finished strong with his first nine-inning complete game and the Indians capped an unfulfilling season with a victory and a four-game sweep of Tampa Bay.

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Mariners 3, Rangers 2

At Seattle, major league hits leader Ichiro Suzuki got two more, including a leadoff home run, to jump start the Mariners in a win over Texas.