CLEVELAND – Nine up, nine down for the perfect Kansas City Royals.

The Royals extended baseball’s best start in 13 years Saturday as Raul Ibanez and Michael Tucker hit two-run homers Saturday to lead the Royals to a 5-2 win over the Cleveland Indians.

At an unlikely 9-0, the Royals are the majors’ only undefeated team and are the first club since the 1990 Cincinnati Reds to win its first nine games. Those Reds went on to win the World Series.

It would be hard to imagine the small-market Royals duplicating that, but no one predicted their fast start, either – especially after they went 62-100 last season.

With a win Sunday, Kansas City would be the first team since the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers to open 10-0. In any case, the Royals are the AL’s first 9-0 team since the 1984 Detroit Tigers.

Ibanez’s homer in the sixth inning off C.C. Sabathia (0-2) put the Royals up 3-2, and Tucker connected in the seventh off David Riske to make it 5-2.

Chris George (2-0), one of the many Royals batting a flu bug the past few days, allowed two runs and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings.

Yankees 5, Devil Rays 4

NEW YORK – Hideki Matsui made the most of his second chance, hitting a bases-loaded single with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, leading the New York Yankees to their fifth straight victory, 5-4 over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Matsui had a chance to give the Yankees the lead in the seventh, but he hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.

He also stranded two runners in the first and fifth innings and was 0-for-4 before his latest big moment in New York.

Matsui became the first Yankee to hit a grand slam in his first game at Yankee Stadium against Minnesota on Tuesday and drove in both runs in a 2-0 win over the Twins on Thursday.

Twins 9, Blue Jays 6

TORONTO – Doug Mientkiewicz homered and drove in three runs as the Minnesota Twins broke away from the Toronto Blue Jays 9-6.

Toronto closer Kelvim Escobar (0-1) entered the ninth with the game tied at 4, but he allowed five runs without recording an out. Escobar has a 27.00 ERA this season.

Luis Rivas and Jacque Jones singled before Escobar walked Denny Hocking.

Corey Koskie followed with a go-ahead grounder to first baseman Carlos Delgado, whose throw to the plate didn’t beat a sliding Rivas.

Torii Hunter followed with a two-run single off Escobar and Mientkiewicz hit a two-run single off Doug Linton, giving Minnesota a 9-4 lead.

Tigers 4, White Sox 3

DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers won for the first time this season, getting a three-run homer from Shane Halter and six strong innings by Nate Cornejo to beat the Chicago White Sox 4-3.

The Tigers (1-9) fell two losses short of matching last season’s 0-11 start. They are the only team since 1900 to start back-to-back seasons with nine straight losses.

Chicago stranded 14 runners, helping snap its eight-game winning streak against the Tigers. Cornejo (1-1) picked up his first victory since April 27, 2002,.