KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The lowly Kansas City Royals completed a stunning sweep of the Yankees with a 5-2 victory last night behind consecutive home runs from Matt Stairs and Terrence Long.

Kansas City, which has the worst record and second-lowest payroll in the major leagues, finished its first three game sweep of the Yankees at home in 15 years.

With Buddy Bell improving to 3-0 as their manager, the Royals earned their first sweep of anybody in 78 series. It was the longest drought in the majors since the Phillies went 79 series without a sweep from 1996-97. The Royals’ sweepless streak wasn’t even close to the major league record of 134 series set by the Philadelphia A’s from 1918-22.

The Royals, whose opening-day payroll of less than $40 million was dwarfed by the nearly $206 million of the Yankees, got key contributions from several rookies and recycled veterans in beating New York 5-3, 3-1, and 5-2 in what will almost surely be one of the most improbable sweeps of the season.

The Yankees, who won 16 of 18 last month and seemingly recovered from a halting start, got swept by the team with the worst record in the majors for the third time in their storied history. It’s their first five-game losing streak since May 2003.

Ryan Jensen (2-1), called up from Triple-A Omaha last month for his first major league appearance since 2003, went five innings, giving up two runs and four hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Rookie reliever Ambiorix Burgos got three outs for his second save, retiring pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra on a groundout with the bases loaded to end it.

Royals outfielder Shane Costa, making his major league debut, had his first RBI and his first hit, and rookie third baseman Mark Teahen had an RBI single. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, in contrast, was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and is hitless in his last 13 at-bats after being named AL player of the month for May.

Stairs hit Carl Pavano’s pitch into the left-field bullpen leading off the sixth. A moment later, Long hit one into the bullpen in right, making it 5-2 and bringing a roar from 25,590 fans who have had little to cheer about since a 104-loss season in 2004. But many were waving brooms as the Yankees went down in the ninth.

The home run was no. 200 for Stairs, who joined Larry Walker as the only Canadian-born players with 200 homers.

Bell, who took over the team on Tuesday just hours before the first game of the series, be 870 1831 926 1842came the only Royals manager besides Whitey Herzog to win his first three games. The Royals, who had not swept the Yankees at home since July 2-4, 1990, raised their record to 16-37, still percentage points behind Colorado for worst in the majors.

Pavano (4-4) went 5 1 /3 innings, allowing five runs and nine hits. After giving up only 16 home runs last season with Florida, he’s already served up 13 this year.

The Royals, who swept the Yankees in New York in 1994, tied it at 1 in the third on an RBI double by Angel Berroa, then took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on Teahen’s RBI single and a fielder’s choice grounder by Costa in his second major league at-bat. The Yankees got a run in the first on Hideki Matsui’s sacrifice fly. Derek Jeter’s RBI single in the fifth made it 3-2.

The other times the Yankees were swept three games by the worst team in the majors was in 2003 by Detroit and in 1937 by the Athletics.

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NIKE DUMPS GIAMBI Jason Giambi no longer has an endorsement deal with Nike.

A Nike spokesman yesterday confirmed that the shoe and apparel company ended its nine-year relationship with the Yankees’ slumping slugger.

Nike did not say if the move was related to Giambi’s reported admission of steroid use or his poor play.

“We never release details of our contractual arrangements,” Nike spokesman Rodney Knox told the Associated Press. “He was with us for nine seasons and we wish him the best.”

The termination of the deal was first reported by ESPN.com. Now Giambi is wearing a pair of Mizuno spikes given to him by teammate Hideki Matsui.

“The last few days I’ve been wearing Nikes,” Giambi said. “I just tried these on. I tried them out last week.”