Now That's More Like It: Yanks Beat Royals 6-1

The Yankees got back in the W column tonight with a 6-1 win over the Kansas City Royals. The win gets the Yankees back to .500 with a 5-5 record.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
N.Y. Yankees	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	2		6	12	0
Kansas City	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	8	0

Andy Pettitte got the start and did not look sharp early, allowing the Royals to score a run in the bottom of the first. But that was all he would allow as he settled down to pitch a very nice ballgame. In 6.2 IP he allowed just one run on five hits and two walks, he also struck out a batter. What was most impressive about Andy tonight was how he seemed to get better as the game went on, especially after the rain delay.

Joba Chamberlain pitched 1.1 innings and didn't allow a run. In the 8th he did get into a little trouble; the Royals had runners on 1st and 3rd with two out, but Joba was able to strike out Jose Guillen on a 99MPH fastball to end the threat.

Mariano Rivera came in to shut the door, and did just that. He did allow a hit to Ross Gload who extended his hitting streak against the Yankees to 16 games. Mo has really been great so far this season.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Pettitte (W, 1-1)	6.2	5	1	1	2	1	0	3.09
Chamberlain (H, 3)	1.1	2	0	0	0	2	0	0.00
Rivera	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00

ROYALS PITCHING

The Yankees offense looked good tonight (a good sign going into Fenway). started the scoring in the 3rd with a Melky Cabrera solo HR off Royals starter John Bale to tie the game. ... The Yanks took the lead in the next inning when following a leadoff single by Jorge Posada and a single by Hideki Matsui, Jose Molina grounded into a double play which scored Posada. ... They scored two more runs in the 5th on an RBI single by Cabrera scoring Morgan Ensberg who had singled to leadoff the inning. Johnny Damon then singled, moving Cabrera to third. Cabrera then score on a Alex Rodriguez RBI groundout. ... The fifth and sixth runs came in the top of the 9th on back-to-back HRs by A-Rod and Posada.

NY Yankees AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Damon, LF 5 1 1 0 0 1 1 .211 Cabrera, CF 5 1 2 2 0 0 1 .320 Rodriguez, 3B 4 1 1 2 1 0 1 .297 Posada, DH 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 .238 Matsui, RF 5 0 1 0 0 1 3 .314 Molina, C 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 .318 Cano, 2B 3 0 0 0 1 0 1 .179 Ensberg, 1B 4 1 2 0 0 1 3 .375 Gonzalez, SS 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 .333 Totals 37 6 12 5 3 4 13 BATTING 2B: Molina (4, Bale). HR: Cabrera (2, 3rd inning off Bale, 0 on, 2 out), Rodriguez (2, 9th inning off Nomo, 0 on, 2 out), Posada (1, 9th inning off Nomo, 0 on, 2 out). TB: Damon; Cabrera 5; Rodriguez 4; Posada 5; Matsui; Molina 3; Ensberg 2; Gonzalez. RBI: Cabrera 2 (3), Rodriguez 2 (7), Posada (3). 2-out RBI: Cabrera; Rodriguez; Posada. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Ensberg 2; Matsui 2. S: Gonzalez. GIDP: Molina. Team LOB: 8.

ROYALS HITTING

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Andy Pettitte (6.2 IP, 1R, 1ER, 5H, 2BB, 1K)

The Yankees head to Fenway Park tomorrow to start a three-game series against the hated Boston Red Sox. Chien-Ming Wang starts for the Yanks, and he will go up against Boston's Clay Buchholz. First pitch is set for 7:05 PM and the game can be seen on YES, and heard on WCBS 880 as well as XM 176. Be sure to check out my series preview tomorrow afternoon.