? Royals win! Royals win!

The Royals ended baseball’s longest losing streak in 17 years Saturday, beating the A’s, 2-1, to snap a 19-game skid. Mike Wood pitched five effective innings, and four relievers combined to hurl four shutout innings.

Barry Zito pitched OK, allowing two runs over seven frames. Both runs came in the fourth. The loss cut the A’s Wild Card lead to one-half game over the Yankees and 1 1/2 over the Indians.

? Beware of the Tribe. After going eight shutout innings in his last outing, Cliff Lee gave up just one run over seven frames in the Indians’ 6-1 win over the stumbling and bumbling Orioles. Lee is 5-1 with a 4.81 ERA in his last 10 starts. Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez each hit two-run homers to fuel the Tribe offense.

? Pair of wild games on Saturday night. After squandering an early 8-0 lead, the Mets beat the Nationals, 9-8, on pinch-hitter Chris Woodward’s RBI single in the bottom of the 10th. And Magglio Ordonez doubled in the winning run with one out in the bottom of the 13th, leading the Tigers past the Blue Jays, 3-2.

? I still don’t understand while Willie Randolph pulled Pedro Martinez after six innings and 78 pitches. The Mets bullpen is a joke. The line says it all.

The Mets need to address the bullpen situation in the offseason. It’s the reason why the club is last in the NL East.

? For the first time in 25 years, two extra-inning grand slams were hit on the same day. Richie Sexson’s 10th-inning granny lifted Seattle past the Twins while Xavier Nady’s 13th-inning salami propelled the Padres over the Braves. Tony Armas Sr. (A’s) and Mike Jorgensen (Mets) last accomplished the feat on June 11, 1980.

? Mariners phenom Felix Hernandez recovered nicely from a somewhat rocky first inning, retiring 17 of the last 18 batters he faced. Hernandez held the Twins to two runs through eight. He struck out nine and walked one in a no decision.

? The Phillies are back on top in the NL Wild Card race after beating the Pirates, 6-1. Brett Myers pitched his second complete game this season.

Before Saturday’s loss to the Angels, manager Terry Francona announced that Curt Schilling will reclaim his spot atop the Red Sox rotation on Thursday at Kansas City.

Good move by the Sox, who lead the Yanks by just three games in the AL East. Mike Timlin, who has 119 saves, will inherit the closer role.

I have no problem with increased security at our ballparks. We live in uncertain times, and it’s nice to have vigilant people working the gates.

But this is a bit much. It was “Take Your Dog to the Park Day” at Shea Stadium on Saturday night. For the first time, Met fans could bring their dogs to a game in Queens.

Well, here’s Diesel, a rotweiller, from Wantagh, N.Y., as he is wanded by security before entering Shea Stadium with his owners.

Was it really necessary to wand the dog down? I don’t think so. Maybe the dog looked “suspicious.” Who knows.

Everytime I think the Yankees are dead in the water, they rebound with a big win.

Make that big wins.

After blowing two games against the Rays, the Yanks have taken two straight from the American League’s best team, the White Sox. The Yanks have outscored the Pale Hose, 8-1, in the two victories on the South Side. And Mike Mussina and Shawn Chacon tossed back-to-back gems.

Chacon might be the Yankees’ second-best pitcher right now, behind Mussina and in front of the Big Enigma, Randy Johnson.  Chacon is 2-1 with a 1.64 ERA in five starts with the Yanks, and New York is 4-1 in those starts.

The Red Sox lost Saturday, leaving the Yankees just three games back in the AL East. New York trails the A’s by a game in the Wild Card race. That will change, however, pending the A’s-Royals game on Saturday night.

I am throwing down the gauntlet.

The Yankees are not making the playoffs.

New York had an opportunity to pick up a game on both the Red Sox and A’s in the American League East and Wild Card races, respectively.

Instead, the Yanks blew it for the second straight night against the Rays. Tampa Bay erased a 5-2 lead to take a 7-6 win and capture yet another series — its third in four tries — against the Yanks. The Rays have won nine of 13 versus New York this year. In 2003 and 2004, the Yankees were 29-9 against the Rays.

Times have changed.

And the Rays are getting cocky. Jonny Gomes, who scored the game-winning run in the eighth on Tanyon Sturtze’s wild pitch, talked smack after the game.

"It just shows that the Yankees with their history and with their payroll and with their All-Stars, they’re not bullet-proof. In between the lines, there are no salaries and no world champions. It’s 9-on-9 plus your bullpen and your bench, and it just shows anyone can win."

New York’s bullpen, which has been a problem all year long, blew another one. Al Leiter was decent, but Aaron Small, Aaron Small and Sturtze didn’t get the job done.

The Yanks now head to Chicago’s South Side for three games with the White Sox. Last week, the Pale Hose took two of three from the Pinstripers. Meanwhile, the Red Sox will be in SoCal for four games with the Angels and the A’s will host the wretched Royals.

As a longtime Yankee fan, I am beginning to worry. The Yankees really need to get their act together this weekend in Chicago. They should not have lost two straight to the Rays — the Yanks should have swept the series and continued their hot streak.

Instead, the season is slipping away.

? Dontrelle Willis and Mark Mulder both pitched five-hit shutouts. Willis (16-8) tossed his Major League-leading fifth shutout this season, lifting the Marlins past the Padres, 6-0. And Mulder (14-6) earned his second shutoutr, helping the Cardinals beat the Diamondbacks, 5-0.

Willis is having a nice year. He’s second in the National League in wins, and fourth in ERA, but there’s no way he’s going to win the Cy Young with Roger Clemens and Chris Carpenter pitching the way they have this season.

Mulder, by the way, is having a nice summer. He’s 5-2 in his last 10 starts with a 3.86 ERA.

? Weird pitching number of the night: Carlos Zambrano, Noah Lowry and Johan Santana each threw 8 1/3 sharp innings Wednesday. Zambrano fanned 10 in the Cubs’ 4-2 win over the Astros. Lowry whiffed seven in the Giants’ 3-2 win against the Reds. And Santana took a no-hitter in the seventh, fanning 10 White Sox in the Twins’ 5-1 win.

? Mark Buerhle — who I thought was a shoo-in for the AL Cy Young a month ago — is s t r u g g l i n g. He’s 4-5 with a 4.11 ERA over his last 10 starts. On Wednesday in the White Sox loss against Santana, Buerhle allowed five runs — four earned — on eight hits over seven innings.

? Astros co-ace Roy Oswalt lost his 10th game of the season in that duel with Zambrano. He’s the only pitcher in the Major Leagues with 10 losses and an ERA (2.67) under 3.00.

? Speaking of the Astros: The have some company atop the National League Wild Card standings. Jon Lieber pitched six strong innings and Bobby Abreu hit a two-run double, leading the Phillies to a 4-3 win over the Nationals and a share of the Wild Card lead.

? Those poor, poor Royals did it again. They lost their club-record 18th straight game, 11-5, to Seattle on Wednesday. The Royals are just three losses from matching the AL record of 21 in a row by the 1988 Orioles. The modern Major League record for consecutive losses is 23, set by the 1961 Phillies. The all-time Major League record is 24, set by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

Next up for the Royals? The A’s, Red Sox and Yankees.

? By beating the Yankees, 7-6, the Rays gave manager Lou Piniella his 1,500th managerial victory to put him in the elite company of Joe Torre and Fred Clarke as the only three in Major League history to have 1,500 wins as a manager and 1,500 career hits as a player.

? David Ortiz might just be the clutchest player in baseball. With the Red Sox trailing the Tigers in the ninth, Big Papi smacked a game-tying, solo homer with one out. An inning later, he hit a monstrous, three-run shot to send the Sox to the 10-7 win. Ortiz has hit 31 homers and knocked in 105 runs this year.

? The Royals can’t buy a break. Jeremy Affeldt allowed a two-out run in the bottom of the eighth and that spelled doom for Kansas City, which dropped its 17th straight, 4-3. I think the all-time record — 24 straight losses by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders — is in serious jeopardy.

? Francisco Rodriguez continues to struggle. Rodriguez walked Corey Koskie with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to force in the tying run and pinch-hitter Frank Catalanotto followed with a sac fly, giving Toronto a 4-3 win. K-Rod allowed two runs on two hits and two walks in just 1/3 of an inning. Rodriguez was charged with his fifth blown save in 32 attempts.

? Just as they did on Monday night, the A’s fell apart in the seventh with a costly mistake against the Orioles. Oakland has now lost three straight for the first time since being swept at Washington from June 7-9.

? Watch out for Twins. They beat the White Sox, 9-4, in 16 innings and are now five games back in the Wild Card race.

? The Braves’ bullpen is highly flammable. Chris Reitsma has blown each of his past three save opportunities, and the past two have denied John Smoltz a victory. Reitsma faced five Dodgers in the ninth inning, and did not retire a single one. He allowed three runs on three hits and two walks as the Dodgers beat the Braves, 6-4.

? One final note: Baseball’s top three run producers — Manny (108), Papi (105) and A-Rod (97) — reside in the AL East.