Well Whatta Ya Know? They're Back at .500

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

Like Friday night the Yanks wasted a great game from their starting pitcher, this time Mike Mussina, with a 3-2 loss to the Royals today at Yankee Stadium. The loss drops the Yanks back to .500 at 32-32. A place they can't seem to get away from this season.

Like I said Mussina pitched great. He allowed just 2 runs on 7 hits in 8 innings of work, he didn't walk a batter and struck out three. His only mistake was a 2-run homer off the bat of Miguel Olivo in the 7th.

Mariano Rivera pitched the 9th and for the second time in three days allowed a leadoff homer to give the Royals a 1-run lead. This time it was off the bat of Jose Guillen, who had a monster series - probably because the Yankees couldn't figure out to stop throwing him pitches on the inner half. The loss was Rivera's second of the season.

IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Mussina 8.0 7 2 2 0 3 1 3.82 Rivera (L 2-2) 1.0 1 1 1 0 2 1 0.93

ROYALS PITCHING

Royals' starting Luke Hochevar also pitched a very good game, he allowed just 2 run on 4 hits in 6+ innings pitched. His only mistake was a hanging breaking ball to Alex Rodriguez that ended up in the seats in left.

Umpire Ed Montague followed up his game changing call on the Giambi check swing on Friday with another game changing blown call today. With the score tied at 2 in the bottom of the 8th and a runner on 1st, Melky Cabrera laid down a great bunt, and clearly beat it out, but for some reason Montague called him out. So instead of 1st and 2nd with nobody out, they had a runner on 2nd and 1 out, and failed to score the run.

The Yanks had another chance to tie or win the game in the bottom of the 9th, they had runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out, but thanks to two horrible ABs by Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera (with the bases load and 2 out) the Yanks were unable to push that run across. Oh, and can someone please tell Cabrera that sliding into first base actually SLOWS you down. He wouldn't have been safe regardless, but I'm sick of watching him slide into first. These two are both very talented, but their baseball IQ is non-existent.

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Damon, LF	4	0	1	0	0	1	1	.326
Jeter, SS	3	0	0	0	1	0	1	.276
Abreu, RF	4	1	1	0	0	1	3	.289
Rodriguez, 3B	4	1	2	2	0	1	1	.317
Matsui, DH	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	.323
Giambi, 1B	3	0	0	0	1	1	0	.254
2-Betemit, PR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.240
Cano, 2B	4	0	1	0	0	1	2	.231
Molina, C	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	.217
a-Posada, PH	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	.311
1-Moeller, PR-C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.254
Cabrera, CF	3	0	0	0	0	1	3	.270
Totals	32	2	6	2	2	7	13
a-Singled for Molina in the 8th. 1-Ran for Posada in the 8th. 2-Ran for Giambi in the 9th.
BATTING 2B: Abreu (14, Hochevar). HR: Rodriguez (10, 7th inning off Hochevar, 1 on, 0 out). TB: Damon; Abreu 2; Rodriguez 5; Cano; Posada. RBI: Rodriguez 2 (31). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Rodriguez; Molina; Abreu; Cabrera 2. S: Cabrera. Team LOB: 7. BASERUNNING SB: Damon (11, 2nd base off Hochevar/Buck).

ROYALS OFFENSE

PLAYER OF THE GAME: TIE - Mike Mussina (8 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K) and Luke Hochevar (6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K)

HONORABLE MENTION: Jose Guillen (2-for-4, 2B, HR, RBI, 2 R, GW solo HR in the 9th off Mariano Rivera)

GOATS OF THE GAME: Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera for their 9th inning ABs, and Mariano Rivera for giving up the homer to Guillen.

The Yanks travel out west to open up a three-game series with the Oakland A's tomorrow. Chien-Ming Wang starts for the Yanks, and hopefully he doesn't pitch as poorly as he has been. Dana Eveland will start for the A's. First pitch is set for 10:05 p.m., and the game can be seen on YES and heard on WCBS 880.