Justin Verlander found his groove on the mound, and the Detroit Tigers rediscovered their stroke at the plate.
Verlander shut down the New York Yankees with his best stuff since throwing a no-hitter while Detroit roughed up Mike Mussina and a couple of relievers in its highest-scoring game this season.
The All-Star pitcher and reigning AL Rookie of the Year gave up just three hits and Placido Polanco was one of three Tigers with at least three hits to lead Detroit to a 16-0 win over New York on Monday night.
It was the most one-sided road shutout loss in the Yankees' history, topping a 15-0 defeat at the Chicago White Sox on July 15, 1907, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"We're playing with a sense of urgency right now because our fate is in our own hands," Verlander said. "We need to just go out and have fun and play like we did for most of the first half of the season."
The Tigers took three of the four games and won a series for the first time since sweeping Minnesota from July 17-19. They won back-to-back games for just the third time since having baseball's best record on July 21.
"If you don't get any confidence from taking three out of four against the Yankees, you probably don't have a pulse," said Brandon Inge, who had four RBIs on three hits.
Detroit didn't make up any ground in the AL Central, though, because the Cleveland Indians won their third straight game to maintain a 2 1/2-game lead.
"Everything is so tight that whoever gets hot right now is going to win this thing," Casey said.
The Tigers scored their most runs since beating Baltimore 17-2 last Sept. 15. It was their highest-scoring shutout victory since a 17-0 win at Kansas City on July 19, 1991, according to Elias.
Detroit turned a rout into a laugher with a six-run seventh and finished with 20 hits.
"Everybody is going to talk about the offense, but I really liked the look in Verlander's eye," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He really went at a real good hitting team.
"To me, that was the bright spot of the evening."
New York has lost five of seven games and fallen eight games behind AL East-leading Boston. The Yankees, who had closed within four games of the Red Sox when the trip started, host Boston in a three-game set starting Tuesday night.
"This has been a bad road trip, and now we've got a very important homestand ahead of us," Derek Jeter said. "We don't have the luxury of taking a break because we've had a bad week. We have to start winning again."
INDIANS 8, TWINS 3: At Cleveland, Paul Byrd beat Minnesota once again, Victor Martinez homered and Cleveland turned a triple play in slowing Minnesota's climb in the AL Central.
BLUE JAYS 6, A's 2: At Oakland, Troy Glaus doubled in Vernon Wells with the go-ahead run as Toronto scored four runs in the 13th inning to beat Oakland.
WHITE SOX 5, DEVIL RAYS 4: At Chicago, Jose Contreras got his first win as a starter in two months and rookie Josh Fields put the White Sox ahead with Chicago's fourth home run of the seventh inning.
ANGELS 6, MARINERS 0: At Seattle, John Lackey pitched his second straight seven-hit shutout against the Mariners, and the Angels beat Seattle to increase their lead in the AL West to three games. Garret Anderson homered and had three RBIs as the Angels improved to 9-4 against Seattle this season.
National League
PHILLIES 9, METS 2: At Philadelphia, Chase Utley had three hits, including a solo homer, in his first game since having hand surgery one month ago, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the New York Mets 9-2 Monday night in the opener of a pivotal four-game series.
BRAVES 13, MARLINS 2: At Miami, Brian McCann hit his second grand slam in a week and Atlanta rebounded from a tough weekend in St. Louis to rout slumping Florida.
PADRES 3, DIAMONDBACKS 1: At San Diego, Geoff Blum hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning and ace Jake Peavy was brilliant again with 11 strikeouts, leading San Diego over Arizona and trimming the Diamondbacks' lead in the NL West to two games over the Padres.
GIANTS 4, ROCKIES 1: At San Francisco, Rich Aurilia singled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning for the second straight day as San Francisco won its fifth straight. Brad Hawpe hit a home run for the Rockies, who had their three-game winning streak stopped.
DODGERS 5, NATIONALS 4: At Los Angeles, Derek Lowe won despite giving up three homers, Ramon Martinez hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly and Los Angeles gained ground in the NL West. Los Angeles closed within 5 1/2 games of division-leading Arizona and remained 3 1/2 games back of San Diego in the wild-card race.