Yankees 12, Royals 5
Yanks, Quiet Through 7, Rally for 10 Runs in Eighth
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: September 5, 2006
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 4 — For seven innings Monday, the Yankees
struck out 10 times and looked meek against the plucky Kansas City Royals.
Then a one-inning rampage restored the teams to their natural states.
The Yankees mauled four helpless relievers for 10 runs in the eighth inning,
roaring back for a 12-5 victory at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals simply took
the abuse, one overmatched pitcher at a time.
“I tell you, I’ve been here a month and a couple of days, and I’ve seen
some crazy things,” said Bobby Abreu, who broke a 5-5 tie with a double
to deep center. “This team has come back at any time, no matter what.”
Robinson Cano had four hits, including a three-run homer for the final
three runs of the Yankees’ biggest inning this season. The homer came
against Ambiorix Burgos, the same Royal who blew the save in the Yankees’
home opener in April.
Derek Jeter won that game with a homer, and he had three hits Monday.
So did Jorge Posada, whose two-run homer against Jimmy Gobble ignited
the Yankees, who had trailed by 5-1 through seven.
By then, the game was encouraging for the Royals, who have baseball’s
worst record and have not made the playoffs since 1985. It had been more
than five years since a Royals pitcher struck out 10 in a game, but
Luke Hudson did it through seven innings.
But when Gobble replaced Hudson to start the eighth, the Yankees pounced.
After Posada’s homer, Johnny Damon bounced a bases-loaded single to
center to tie the score, 5-5.
With one out, Abreu doubled to the warning track in center field against
Andrew Sisco, giving the Yankees the lead for good.
“They don’t feel there’s anything they can’t do offensively,”
Manager Joe Torre said. “If they get just a little bit of a crack in
the armor, we feel we can exploit it.”
The half-inning lasted 35 minutes 50 seconds, and by the time the game
ended, the Yankees had shaved another day off the schedule on their march
to a ninth consecutive American League East title.
The Yankees lead the Boston Red Sox by nine games in the division. They
trail the Detroit Tigers by two games in the race for the best record
in the league, which would ensure home-field advantage throughout the
postseason.
Hudson had an appropriate first name. It was “Star Wars” night at
Kauffman Stadium, with Chewbacca throwing out the first pitch and an
Ewok dancing to “Super Freak” for reasons unknown.
The Evil Empire — that is, the Yankees — had never faced Hudson as a
starter before, and he was impressive. Melky Cabrera had gone 35 plate
appearances without a strikeout, but he struck out on a 94-mile-an-hour
fastball to end the second inning with a runner on third.
Hudson was fearless, knocking down Jeter with a high fastball in the
third inning. He used a variety of pitches to pile up seven strikeouts
through the fifth inning, when the Yankees scored.
The former Royal Aaron Guiel singled to lead off the inning, and went
to third on a single to right by Jeter, who was out advancing when
third baseman Mark Teahen bolted from the bag, snared Emil Brown’s
high throw and fired to second to catch him.
That brought up Abreu, who tapped an infield single near the mound to
score Guiel and tie the score, 1-1.
The first Royals batter scored off Wang, and through five innings
that remained their only run. The run came after David DeJesus smacked
a ground-ball, opposite-field double down the left-field line and
came home on two groundouts.
The groundout, of course, is Chien-Ming Wang’s specialty, and his
ability to produce grounders almost at will has given him an outside
chance at the Cy Young award. At minimum, he has emerged as an ace
at a time when Mike Mussina has been down with a right groin injury.
Mussina comes off the disabled list Tuesday to start against the
Royals. He has made three bullpen sessions since his last start,
on Aug. 20, and said he would have kept pitching had the Yankees not
opened such a big division lead.
Taking two weeks off could benefit him in October, when Mussina, 37,
expects to be stronger than he was last fall. Elbow pain cost Mussina
three weeks last September, and he made only three starts before the
playoffs.
“I think the rest is going to help, because the injury wasn’t an arm
thing,” Mussina said. “So at my age, maybe having a couple weeks off
isn’t bad. Get back out there with a month to go and get back into full
shape again.”
Mussina said he felt no discomfort in his bullpen sessions. Still, he
plans to wrap his upper right leg any time he takes the mound, and said
he would tailor his exercises to put less stress on that leg.
The Royals could be pesky for him, if Monday was any indication.
After DeJesus led off the sixth inning with a single, Cano let a
double-play ball carom off his body. He settled for the out at first,
but the misplay was costly.
A single by Teahen scored DeJesus on a close play at home. After a
pop-out, two more singles scored Teahen. Wang was lifted after a walk,
and with the bases loaded, Brian Bruney blew a 97-m.p.h. fastball past
Angel Berroa to end the inning.
But the Yankees continued to struggle with Hudson and his moving fastball,
going down in order in the seventh and striking out twice.
INSIDE PITCH
The Yankees will give Mariano Rivera another series to rest his sore
right elbow. Rivera, who has a mild muscle strain, has not pitched
since Thursday, when he had a magnetic resonance imaging exam. “There’s
no rush,” said Rivera, who will play catch in Kansas City and may pitch
this weekend in Baltimore. ...
Manager Joe Torre said he expected that Hideki Matsui would not
rejoin the Yankees until after this seven-game road trip. Matsui,
who broke his left wrist May 11, will join Class AA Trenton for
the Eastern League playoffs Wednesday.
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