St. Petersburg, Fla. ? The Kansas City Royals got late heroics again.

Brent Mayne hit a tying home run with two outs in the ninth inning, and Mike Sweeney hit a three-run shot in the 12th to help the Royals topple Tampa Bay, 7-3, Saturday night.

A night after Raul Ibanez hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Esteban Yan to rally the Royals to a 6-5 win, Kansas City again victimized Tampa Bay’s closer.

Mayne homered on a 2-0 pitch from Yan to make it 3-all. Yan has blown four of his last five save chances.

“I thought he was going to reach up and catch the ball,” said Mayne of just his third homer, which went over right fielder Ben Grieve and landed in the front row. “It’s been one of those years. I’m just waiting for somebody to make a catch. If he caught it, I was going to beat him up and tear my uniform off and retire. I was going to karate kick him and retire.”

The latest bad outing by Yan, who has blown seven of 22 save chances for a major league-worst percentage (68 percent) cost him his job.

“It doesn’t appear we can do it with one guy,” Tampa Bay manager Hal McRae said. “I have to try something different.”

The Devil Rays will use a closer committee, with either Wilson Alvarez or Travis Harper filling the spot Sunday.

Luis Alicea opened the 12th with a walk from Jesus Colome (2-7) and Chuck Knoblauch bunted for a single. One out later, Sweeney hit his 17th homer.

“It was a pretty special time to hit a home run,” said Sweeney, who is 8-for-24 since returning Aug. 13 from a lower back/hip injury. “I was just trying to do something to help the team out. Believe it or not, that last pitch, I just told myself, get on top of this ball and try and hit a hard ground ball or a line drive.”

Ibanez made it 7-3 with an opposite-field solo homer.

Scott Mullen (4-3) got the win and Roberto Hernandez got his 21st save.

The Devil Rays (40-82) are guaranteed a losing season. Tampa Bay has never finished above .500 in its five-year history.

“We’ve just got to keep plugging away,” McRae said.

Kansas City threatened in the 11th, but Neifi Perez bunted into an inning-ending double play with runners on first-and-third. First baseman Steve Cox caught the squeeze attempt in the air, and then threw to third.

Tampa Bay starter Jorge Sosa allowed two runs and three hits over seven innings. He struck out four, walked two and held the Royals to an infield single through the fifth.

Over his four previous starts, which were all losses, Sosa gave up 18 runs in 17 2-3 innings.

Aubrey Huff hit his 15th homer coming on his 294th at-bat for the Devil Rays. He went deep eight times in 411 at-bats last year.

Tampa Bay has gone a franchise-record 14 straight winless series (0-11-3). It’s the longest skid since the 1999 Chicago Cubs went 15 in a row.

Kansas City’s Darrell May allowed three runs and six hits over 5 1-3 innings in his first start since July 27. He was filling in for Runelvys Hernandez, who has a tired arm.

May will make another start, while Hernandez will throw on the side Sunday.

Randy Winn singled and went to second on Carl Crawford’s bunt single in the sixth. The duo pulled off a double steal before Huff gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead with a sacrifice fly.

Crawford put the Devil Rays up 1-0 with an RBI single in the first.

Kansas City tied it at 1 on Mayne’s sacrifice fly in the second. Notes: Tampa Bay’s Jared Sandberg has struck out in 59 of his 70 starts. He has fanned in 33 of his past 78 at-bats. … Kansas City 2B Luis Ordaz made an over-the-shoulder, juggling catch on Chris Gomez’s foul ball down the right-field line in the third inning. … Grieve went 0-for-4, including a strikeout. He has struck out 98 times 47 times looking this season.