Joba Chamberlain mixed in some curveballs and changeups and moved one step closer to getting past the pitch-count limits that have held him back in his first two starts.

All Dan Giese got yesterday was the lineup card and a souvenir ball from a game he’ll never forget.

Chamberlain bounced back from a disappointing first start with the Yankees, pitching into the fifth inning to help New York beat the Kansas City Royals 6-3 for its fourth victory in five games.

“As a competitor, you want to be out there as long as you can go and as hard as you can go,” said Chamberlain, who opened the year in the bullpen and was limited to 78 pitches on a 95-degree afternoon. “But you also understand that it’s a transition. You have to be patient and learn from it and try to get better every time out.”

Giese (1-1) relieved Chamberlain and pitched 2.2 hitless innings to earn his first major league win. Jose Veras worked the eighth and Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth for his 16th save.

“To have Mariano Rivera close out your first major league win, I stayed out in the dugout to watch it,” Giese said. “It was something else.”

Rivera allowed a go-ahead homer to David DeJesus in the ninth on Saturday but got the win when the Yankees pushed across two runs in the bottom half for a 12-11 victory. Add in yesterday’s rally, and New York has come from behind in nine of its past 11 wins.

Jose Guillen hit a two-run homer and Joey Gathright made three outstanding plays in center field for Kansas City, which has lost 17 of 20. The Royals also dropped to 4-29 at Yankee Stadium since the start of the 2000 season.

“I was pleased with the way we were selective against Joba but once we got into the bullpen maybe it was the change in velocity, the drastic change in velocity, we weren’t nearly as balanced,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

Jason Giambi hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth and Bobby Abreu finished with an upper-deck home run and three RBIs for the Yankees. Johnny Damon got two more hits after going 6-for-6 with the game-winning single in New York’s victory Saturday.

Guillen’s third-inning drive put Kansas City ahead 3-2 and gave the slugger three homers and nine RBIs in the last two games.

New York tied it on Abreu’s run-scoring groundout in the fifth and went ahead when Giambi led off the sixth with his team-best 14th homer on a full-count pitch from Zack Greinke (5-4).

“It was a slider. It was the fourth one I gave him,” Greinke said. “The others he just fouled off. That one he just kept right there.”

Chamberlain allowed three runs — two earned — and five hits in 4.1 innings, striking out five and walking one.

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Padres 8, Mets 6 Pinch-hitter Tony Clark connected for a go-ahead, three-run homer off Billy Wagner with two outs in the eighth inning to lift the San Diego Padres over the Mets 8-6 yesterday for a four-game sweep.

Wagner relieved Duaner Sanchez with two outs and runners on first and second. The left-hander gave up an RBI single to Jody Gerut that cut New York’s lead to 6-5. Clark then hit a full-count fastball over the center-field wall to extend the Padres’ season-high winning streak to five games.

The pinch-hit homer was the 11th of Clark’s career and the first of the season for San Diego. It also deprived Pedro Martinez of his second win since he returned from the disabled list Tuesday.

The Padres, who have won eight of 11 overall, had their record-setting streak of 2-1 wins snapped. San Diego became the first team in major league history to win four straight 2-1 games on Saturday night, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The victory Sunday gave San Diego its first four-game sweep of New York since Aug. 23-26, 2004.

The staggering Mets (30-32) finished a 2-5 trip to California and have a day off Monday before opening a six-game homestand against NL West-leading Arizona. New York, a World Series favorite before the season, is fourth in the NL East, 7.5 games behind first-place Philadelphia.

Craig Stansberry started the San Diego eighth with a bloop double off Sanchez. Luke Carlin reached on a one-out walk. After Sanchez struck out Scott Hairston, Wagner (0-1) allowed Gerut’s hit before Clark delivered the big blow.

It was Wagner’s third blown save in 16 chances. When he entered the game, he had allowed only one earned run all season.