KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Emil Brown and Tony Graffanino drove in three runs apiece, sending the Kansas City Royals to a 15-7 victory and a three-game sweep of the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates.

In this interleague matchup between the two worst teams in the majors, the Royals seemed to establish themselves as the best of the worst.

Twice in their first sweep of the Pirates (26-48), the Royals (22-49) erased 4-0 deficits while stretching their season-best winning streak to four in a row. The Pirates have lost a season-worst eight straight and are 1-8 against the AL this season.

Reggie Sanders scored four times for Kansas City. Scott Elarton (3-8) went 5 2-3 innings and gave up six hits and four runs, but only one was earned as the Royals committed two errors for the second consecutive game.

Kansas City pulled off a strange, lucky double play in the sixth, but the Pirates still scored three runs thanks to another zany sequence.

After Jason Bay and Freddy Sanchez singled leading off, Craig Wilson lifted a lazy fly to shallow right-center. The runners froze as second baseman Mark Grudzielanek camped under the ball.

But he apparently lost it in the sun, and the ball dropped cleanly to the turf. So Grudzielanek picked it up and threw to second for the forceout on Sanchez, then Angel Berroa threw to third baseman Mark Teahen for the tag on Bay.

The weird play cost the Pirates two runs because Joe Randa then doubled to left-center, scoring Wilson from first.

But then reliever Todd Wellemeyer walked Jose Castillo and threw a wild pitch that put runners at second and third. And Humberto Cota hit a popup in the infield that dropped out of Berroa’s glove for an error as Randa and Castillo raced home to make it 7-5.

The Royals scored four unearned runs in the seventh with the help of two Pirates errors. First, shortstop Jack Wilson mishandled a routine grounder with two outs that allowed one run to score. Then Brown tripled to right-center for two RBIs and came home when Castillo threw wildly to third.

Paul Maholm (2-6) went 4 1-3 innings, giving up seven runs and six hits. He walked five, and every one of them scored.

The Royals got a run in the first on Cota’s passed ball and Graffanino’s RBI single, then the Pirates tied it 2-all in the second on Castillo’s RBI double and an RBI single by Cota.

After John Buck’s solo homer in the second, Esteban German had a two-run single in the fourth for the Royals. Kansas City took a 7-2 lead in the fifth on Graffanino’s RBI double and an RBI single by Teahen.

Brown and Graffanino had RBI singles in the sixth, but the Pirates made it 9-7 in the seventh on Bay’s RBI double and an RBI groundout.

Grudzielanek added a two-run single in the eighth to make it 15-7.

Notes: Nine of the 22 runs were unearned… The Royals are 3-9 in day games at home. … The Pirates have been hit with pitches an NL-high 39 times. … The start was delayed 31 minutes by rain. … It was Elarton’s first victory in nine starts at Kauffman Stadium.

AP-ES-06-22-06 1814EDT