MINNEAPOLIS — The Homer Hankies will be waving in the Metrodome again this postseason, and a little sooner than expected.

The Twins took home another AL Central championship yesterday and Joe Mauer became the first catcher to win an American League batting title by getting two hits in Minnesota's 5-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

About 35 minutes after Minnesota's game ended, the Kansas City Royals completed a big comeback and beat the Detroit Tigers 10-8 in 12 innings — giving the Twins their fourth division title in five years.

After starting the season just 25-33, they will open the playoffs at home tomorrow against AL West champion Oakland with ace Johan Santana on the mound.

When asked if there could be a better script written, Michael Cuddyer said, "Yeah, we win the World Series. That's a good script right there."

The Twins began the day tied with Detroit for first place, but they needed a victory and a Tigers loss to win the division title because Detroit won the season series against the Twins.

More than 30,000 fans at the Metrodome stayed to watch the end of the Tigers' game and cheer in a euphoric scene.

"They said we couldn't do it!" Torii Hunter exclaimed over and over again in a champagne and beer-soaked clubhouse. "I'm going to buy the whole Kansas City team a bottle of champagne! Every one of them! Dom Perignon."

Mauer went 2 for 4 to finish the season at .347, beating out New York's Derek Jeter (.343), for the batting crown.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen sat Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko and Joe Crede, no doubt helping Carlos Silva (11-15) cruise through 5 1/3 innings.

Javier Vazquez (11-12) gave up four runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings for the White Sox, who won the World Series for the first time in 88 years last season.

Royals 10, Tigers 8: Detroit wasted a great chance to win the AL Central yesterday, blowing a six-run lead and then watching All-Star starter Kenny Rogers (17-8) lose in relief to host Kansas City in 12 innings. The loss left the Tigers with the AL wild card. In the 12th, Esteban German's RBI single and Emil Brown's bases-loaded walk off Rogers won it for the last-place Royals.

Blue Jays 7, Yankees 5: With the game tied 5-5 in the ninth, Adam Lind hit a two-run, two-out homer off Kyle Farnsworth (3-6) to lead Toronto past host New York. Josh Towers (2-10) gave up two hits and a run in four innings for the victory. Scott Downs got three outs for his first save.

Athletics 11, Angels 10: Brendan Donnelly's throwing error enabled Jeremy Brown to score the go-ahead run in the 10th inning, and visiting Oakland avoided being swept by Los Angeles in a season-ending four-game series. Brown started the winning rally by hitting a two-out double off Chris Bootcheck (0-1).

Red Sox 9, Orioles 0: Devern Hansack (1-1) pitched no-hit ball for five innings before the game was called because of rain, giving host Boston a win against Baltimore — but not giving the Red Sox rookie official credit for a no-hitter. In only his second major league outing, Hansack became the ninth AL pitcher to allow no hits in a complete game of fewer than nine innings. He walked one and struck out four.

Indians 6, Devil Rays 3: Cliff Lee (14-11) allowed three runs and seven hits and went nine innings for the first time in his career as host Cleveland beat Tampa Bay. Jhonny Peralta had two RBIs off rookie Jason Hammel (0-6).

Mariners 3, Rangers 2: Major league hits leader Ichiro Suzuki got two more, including a leadoff home run, to jump start host Seattle past Texas. Richie Sexson added his 34th home run in the second inning off Robinson Tejeda (5-5). Adrian Beltre then singled after Yuniesky Betancourt doubled to break a 2-2 tie in the third. Suzuki finished with 224 hits.