The Minnesota Twins' starting pitchers played a game of can you top this against the hapless Kansas City Royals.

And everyone came out a winner.

Kyle Lohse followed Johan Santana and Brad Radke by throwing the Twins' club-record third straight shutout, beating the visiting Royals 12-0 Wednesday night.

"You don't want those kind of thoughts to cross your mind, but you obviously don't want to be the guy to give it up," Lohse said after his six-hitter.

Santana started off the series by throwing a three-hitter, Radke pitched a four-hitter, and Lohse closed out the sweep as Minnesota shut out an opponent in three consecutive games for the first time in its 44-year history. The streak of 27 scoreless innings is a franchise high.

The Twins' trio became the first to accomplish the feat since September 1995 when Baltimore's Mike Mussina, Scott Erickson and Kevin Brown did it.

"Everybody's going to look like Cy Young right now, the way we're swinging," said Dee Brown, who had three hits for the Royals. Kansas City has lost eight in a row and 13 of 14, scoring one run in their last 37 innings.

Lohse (3-6) won for just the second time in his last 15 starts, getting more run support than he had in all of June. In five starts last month, the Twins scored a total of five runs while he was in the game. He struck out seven and walked none.

"I've been working hard all year and things haven't been working out," Lohse said. "Hopefully it gets me going."

At New York, Detroit beat up New York pitching for the second day in a row and won a series at Yankee Stadium for the first time since 1996.Carlos Guillen had three hits, including a three-run homer, and the Tigers touched rookie Brad Halsey (1-2) for seven runs and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings.The Tigers won after Ivan Rodriguez and manager Alan Trammell were ejected in the first inning after arguing a called third strike.

At Chicago, Jarrod Washburn (9-4) pitched a four-hitter for his first career shutout, and Jose Guillen homered twice and tied a career high with five RBI for Anaheim.Angels catcher Bengie Molina grounded into a 5-4-3 triple play, the White Sox's first since June 6, 1996.

At Boston, Pedro Martinez (9-3) allowed a run and five hits in seven innings, and Boston pounded Oakland again.Nomar Garciaparra, Manny Ramirez and Mark Bellhorn homered for the Red Sox, who have scored 22 runs on 32 hits in the first two games of the series.

At Toronto, Josh Phelps homered twice, including a grand slam that landed in the fifth deck at SkyDome, and had a career-high seven RBIs to lead Toronto over struggling Seattle.

At Cleveland, Gary Matthews Jr. and Mark Teixeira hit two-run homers in the seventh as Cleveland's bullpen blew its 20th save opportunity.

At Baltimore, Rob Bell (3-3) took a two-hitter into the eighth, and Toby Hall and Damian Rolls had three RBI apiece.Baltimore's John Parrish (5-3) and four relievers combined to allow 14 hits and 11 walks.