Yankees Unleash Avalanche on Indians, 21-1

Not even the ’98 New York Yankees did this.

In fact, not a single player in baseball today was alive the last time the New York Yankees won by 20 runs.

And the last time they scored this many times at home, Lou Gehrig drove in four runs and Babe Ruth drove in three.

“I don’t know if you can really explain it,” Scott Brosius said Saturday after the Yankees’ 21-1 rout of the Cleveland Indians at New York.

Chili Davis went five for six with six runs batted in, and Jorge Posada had a career-high four hits and drove in three runs.

And they did it against Cleveland, which had the best record in baseball before the Yankees’ dramatic 10-9, 10-inning victory in Friday’s series opener.

Yankee Manager Joe Torre compared it to a snowball picking up speed as it rolls down a hill. Actually, it was more like an avalanche.

By the seventh, the Yankees led, 18-0.

“There’s nothing in the world you can do with a game like today,” Indian Manager Mike Hargrove said. “You just file it and move on.”

The buzz afterward was “message.” Are the memories of this game going to carry into October, when the Yankees and Indians expect to meet each other in the American League championship series?

“I don’t think it’s going to do anything to lessen their confidence,” Torre said. “If it wasn’t for the experience of both clubs being in postseason play, I’d think you could make more of it.”

Oakland 12, Kansas City 2--Jason Giambi hit three-run home runs against Tim Byrdak in consecutive innings at Kansas City as the Athletics ended a seven-game losing streak.

Giambi, who hit a grand slam against Mac Suzuki on Friday night, homered in the sixth for a 6-2 lead, then made the score 9-2 in the seventh.

Giambi, who went two for three with 10 RBIs in his last six at-bats, raised his home run total to 21 with his third multi-homer game of the season and seventh of his career.

The six RBIs were a career high for Giambi, the older brother of Kansas City’s Jeremy Giambi, who tripled and scored in the third.

Minnesota 10, Seattle 3--Corey Koskie hit his first major league grand slam and Jacque Jones also homered for the Twins as Minneapolis.

Koskie hit his eighth homer of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning against reliever Frank Rodriguez to make the score 8-3. Koskie’s homer came after the Mariners rallied from a 4-0 deficit to get within a run with three runs in the top of the inning.

Chicago 6, Toronto 5--Frank Thomas’ go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning at Chicago helped the White Sox end the Blue Jays’ seven-game winning streak.

Boston 11, Detroit 4--Rookie Trot Nixon hit three of the Red Sox’s seven home runs and drove in a career-high five runs at Detroit as the Red Sox ended a three-game losing streak.

Nomar Garciaparra homered twice and Brian Daubach and Troy O’Leary also homered for the Red Sox.

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20-20

The Yankees scored 20 runs in a game for the 20th time Saturday, beating the Cleveland Indians, 21-1. Yankee powerhouses of the past have lit up the scoreboard, but it has been a while.

* Biggest victory . . . since beating Washington Senators, 22-1, on Aug. 12, 1953.

* Biggest home victory . . . since beating Washington, 21-1, on July 4, 1927.

* First time scored 20 . . . since a 21-7 rout at Kansas City on Aug. 19, 1962.

* Most runs at home . . . since beating the Chicago White Sox, 22-5, on July 26, 1931.