Kansas City's Mark Teahen (24) scores on a sacrifice fly by Alex Gordon during the first inning of the Royals' 4-3 victory Saturday at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City, Mo. ? On the next-to-last day of the regular season, the Cleveland Indians absorbed a postseason setback.

Joey Gathright singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth, lifting the Kansas City Royals over Cleveland, 4-3, Saturday night and ending the Indians’ hope of getting home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs.

The Indians already had clinched the AL Central title. They’ll start their playoff series against the New York Yankees on Thursday.

Cleveland’s loss gave AL East champion Boston the home field. The Red Sox also earned the choice of when to start their series – they picked to open against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.

If the Indians had begun Wednesday, the extra day off would’ve enabled 19-game winners C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona to get two starts each in the five-game series against the Yankees.

Cleveland and Boston went into the final two games tied with 95-65 records. But the Red Sox, who own the tiebreaker over the Indians, beat Minnesota 6-4 earlier Saturday for their 96th victory

After Mike Sweeney led off the eighth with a single against Rafael Perez (1-2), pinch-hitter Esteban German laid down a bunt and appeared to be safe when the throw from catcher Victor Martinez hit the runner.

German was called out for running inside the base line, and manager Buddy Bell was ejected for arguing. After Alex Gordon singled, Jensen Lewis relieved.

Shane Costa struck out before Gathright, whose trouble with the lights cost the Royals two early runs, singled home the tiebreaking run.

Joakim Soria (2-3) pitched the final two innings for the last-place Royals.

The Indians tied it 3-all in the eighth on Martinez’s run-scoring single, his third RBI of the game.

The Royals scored three times in the first inning after David DeJesus led off by getting hit by a pitch for the 23rd time, extending his own team record. Mark Grudzielanek singled, Mark Teahen doubled in a run, another scored on a wild pitch and Gordon made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly.

The Royals had four different pitchers face five batters from the final out of the sixth inning to the final out of the seventh, and the strategy worked. Jimmy Gobble struck out Grady Sizemore to end the seventh with a runner on first.

In the Cleveland third, Martinez lifted a fly ball to left-center. Gathright, the left fielder, lost it in the lights and the ball dropped for a two-run single.

Royals starter Gil Meche went six innings. He tied his season high with seven strikeouts and ended his first season in Kansas City with a respectable 3.67 ERA.