What a crazy, crazy game!

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Kansas City	2	0	3	0	0	0	5	0	1		11	12	0
N.Y. Yankees	1	0	0	4	1	0	2	2	2		12	19	0

Another heart attack of a game in the Bronx, the second in three days. This time the hero of the day was Johnny Damon, but more about him later. The only place to start this recap is with the Andy Pettitte, who was awful. He allowed ten runs on ten hits in 6.2 IP. And like his previous outting he could not hold a lead that the Yanks gave him. Joe Girardi also left him in this game one batter too long. He had already given up the lead in the 7th, and the Royals had the bases loaded for Jose Guillen. Guillen had already taken Pettitte deep for a 2-run homer in the 1st and also hit an RBI single in the 3rd. Jose Veras was also warmed in the pen. Another reason why Veras should have been brought in at this point was his splits vs. righties and lefties, he hits .233 vs. righties and .311 vs lefties. Anyway Joe decides to leave Pettitte in and Guillen hit a grand slam HR, which at the time gave the Royals a 10-6 lead.

Veras then came in and struck out Miguel Olivo to end the 7th. He also pitched a scoreless 8th. If Veras can consistently throw strikes he could be a very good relief pitcher for this team.

After the Yankees had tied the game at ten Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the 9th. On the first pitch he threw David DeJesus blasted a solo HR into the right field bleachers to give the Royals an 11-10. He left his cutter out over the plate and DeJesus punished him for it. He then retired the next three batters he faced easily. Even with the HR his ERA is just 0.67, so I wouldn't worry about Mo just yet.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Pettitte	6.2	10	10	10	2	3	2	4.99
Veras	1.1	1	0	0	0	2	0	4.11
Rivera (W, 2-1)	1.0	1	1	1	0	1	1	0.67

ROYALS PITCHING

The Yankees offense showed a lot of grit today. They fought back from being down 5-1, 10-6, and 11-10, and Johnny Damon was in the middle of all of it. He scored the Yankees first run in the first on an RBI single by Jason Giambi. The Yanks lucked out on the play because the ball took a bad hop over the 2nd baseman. Damon also tied the game with an RBI single in the 4th.

In the next inning Jason Giambi blasted a long solo-HR deep into the upper deck in right to give the Yanks a 6-5 lead.

With the Yanks down 10-6 in the 7th Alex Rodriguez crushed a 2-run homer that almost reached the left-field bleachers. An inning later it was Johnny Damon once again, hitting a 2-run single to tie the game at 10. The single scored Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera who had both previously singled.

After the Royals took an 11-10 lead in the top of the 9th, Jorge Posada answered with a solo HR off of Royals' closer Joakim Soria to tie the game at 11. It was Soria's first blown save of the year. Wilson Betemit then walked and Melky Cabrera singled to set up 1st and 2nd with 2 out for you guessed it, Johnny Damon. Damon worked the count to 3-1 and then smacked a game-winning RBI single down the line in right to give the Yanks a 12-11 win in what was the wildest game of the year.

Damon finished the game 6-6, the first 6-hit game of his career. His average is now up to .326.

As bad as the offense was yesterday, that's how good it was today. Six Yankees had multi-hit games, and they racked up 12 runs on 19 hits.

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Damon, LF	6	1	6	4	0	0	0	.326
Jeter, SS	4	0	1	0	0	0	3	.280
Abreu, RF	5	1	1	0	0	0	3	.286
Rodriguez, 3B	4	2	2	2	1	1	2	.304
Giambi, DH	4	2	2	2	1	1	0	.259
Posada, C	4	2	2	2	1	0	2	.310
Cano, 2B	5	2	2	1	0	0	1	.230
Betemit, 1B	3	1	0	1	1	2	1	.240
Cabrera, CF	5	1	3	0	0	0	0	.279
Totals	40	12	19	12	4	4	12
BATTING 2B: Damon (19, Bannister), Posada (7, Bannister). HR: Giambi (13, 5th inning off Peralta, 0 on, 2 out), Rodriguez (9, 7th inning off Tomko, 1 on, 1 out), Posada (2, 9th inning off Soria, 0 on, 1 out). TB: Damon 7; Jeter; Abreu; Rodriguez 5; Giambi 5; Posada 6; Cano 2; Cabrera 3. RBI: Giambi 2 (33), Posada 2 (13), Cano (20), Betemit (7), Damon 4 (31), Rodriguez 2 (27). 2-out RBI: Giambi 2; Damon. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Posada; Rodriguez. S: Jeter. SF: Betemit. GIDP: Jeter. Team LOB: 8. BASERUNNING SB: Damon (10, 2nd base off Peralta/Buck).

ROYALS OFFENSE

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Johnny Damon (6-for-6, 4 RBI, 1 R, 2B)

HONORABLE MENTION: Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, and Jorge Posada, who all went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, and all hit big HRs today.

Joba Chamberlain makes his second Major League start of his career tomorrow, and he will face off against Royals' starter Zack Greinke. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m., and the game can be seen on YES, and heard on WCBS 880.