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Cabrera, Hosmer Power Royals Past Yankees, 11-5

-- See Pinstripe Alley for complete discussion and analysis of the Yankees

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Cabrera, Hosmer Power Royals Past Yankees, 11-5

These aren't the Kansas City Royals from the past few seasons.

Once a moribund franchise out of playoff races by May, the Royals dominated the New York Yankees, 11-5, to take two of three games.

It was the first series the Yankees lost all season. New York, struggling as of late, dropped out of first place for the first time since April 13. The Yankees have lost six of their last nine games.

Unlike Wednesday night's 11-inning affair, the Royals jumped out to a big lead early. Eric Hosmer led off the second inning with a home run, his second in as many games, to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Careless defensive mistakes helped set the up the big inning for Kansas City.

Robinson Cano's throwing error on a tailor-made double play ball allowed Wilson Betemit to take second and left Matt Treanor safe at first. A passed ball from Francisco Cervelli moved the runners up, and Mike Aviles extended the lead to 2-0 with an infield single.

Melky Cabrera followed with a RBI double, and caused a Cervelli throwing error on a pickoff attempt. That allowed Aviles to score, pushing the lead to 4-0.

Billy Butler and Jeff Francour finished the scoring, helping secure the most runs surrendered by the Yankees in a single inning this season.

Cabrera stretched the lead further in the fourth inning, leading off with a solo home run. Alex Gordon doubled right after the home run, and Billy Butler drove him in to push the lead to 8-0. That ended the night for Ivan Nova (3-3). In the shortest start of his career, he went only three innings, allowing eight runs (four earned) and 10 hits.

The Yankees mounted a rally in the fourth inning, cutting the Royals lead to four. Kansas City starter Sean O'Sullivan (2-2), who threw three perfect innings, allowed a lead-off home run to Cano. Cervelli hit a two-run double, and Derek Jeter hit a sacrifice fly to shrink the lead to 8-4.

O'Sullivan settled down after that inning, pitching into the seventh for his second win of the season.

The Royals pushed the game out of reach against rookie Amaury Sanit. The 31-year old Cuban, making his season debut, allowed three runs in 4 2/3 relief innings.

Alex Rodriguez broke a 65 at-bat home run drought, hitting his sixth of the season off Brandon Wood. That made the score 11-5, but the Yankees couldn't mount another rally. 

Final - 5.12.2011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City Royals 0 6 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 11 16 0
New York Yankees 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 0 5 8 2
WP: Sean O`Sullivan (2 - 2)
LP: Ivan Nova (3 - 3)

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Royals 4, Yankees 3 (11 Innings): Yankees Fail To Capitalize

Frustrating and ugly. Those are the first words that come to mind to try and describe the New York Yankees' 4-3 11-inning loss to the Kansas City Royals Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Why frustrating?

  • Because the Yankees went 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
  • Because they left 15 runners on base.
  • Because they wanted a tremendous performance by starting pitcher A.J. Burnett, who allowed one hit (a solo home run by Eric Hosmer) in seven innings.

Why ugly?

  • Because second baseman Robinson Cano left the game after getting hit in the head by Royals' pitcher Nathan Adcock.
  • Because Burnett drilled Kansas City's Jeff Francouer the next inning and was accused of retaliation by Royals' Manager Ned Yost.
  • Because Buddy Carlyle was awful in the 11th inning. He surrendered a hit, walked three and uncorked a pair of wild pitches in giving up the eventual winning run.

In their last 16 games the Yankees have scored more than five runs just twice.

"Right now we're struggling offensively," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We're better than this."

The series concludes Thursday night with Ivan Nova pitching for the Yankees and Sean O'Sullivan for the Royals.

Final - 5.11.2011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 R H E
Kansas City Royals 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 4 4 0
New York Yankees 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 12 1
WP: Joakim Soria (3 - 0)
SV: Louis Coleman (1)
LP: Buddy Carlyle (0 - 1)

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Rafael Soriano To Get MRI On Ailing Elbow

The New York Yankees career of high-priced free-agent relief pitcher Rafael Soriano has not exactly gotten off to a great start. It has now gotten even worse with the news that Soriano has been sent for an MRI on his sore pitching elbow.

You knew something was up with Soriano when he did not pitch the eighth inning Tuesday with the Yankees holding a 3-1 lead over Kansas City -- the inning and the type of game for which the Yankees signed him to a three-year, $35-million dollar contract to pitch.

Soriano apparently has been feeling elbow soreness since pitching in back-to-back games April 30 and May 1.

The veteran right-hander has not exactly made a smooth transition from closing for Tampa Bay, where he saved a league-leading 45 games a season ago, to setting up for Mariano Rivera in New York. His performance has been uneven, and included a meltdown in which he blew a 4-0 lead and refused to talk to reporters afterwards.

The Yankees can only hope they get good news from the MRI and that Soriano finally begins to settle in and do the job the Yankees brought him to New York to do.

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2011 - Rafael Soriano 1-1 15 0 0 0 1 1 14.0 15 9 9 1 9 9 5.79 1.71


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Yankees 3, Royals 1: Old Yankees Trump Young Royals

Some of the old guys on the New York Yankees ruled the day Tuesday as the Yankees defeated the young Kansas City Royals, 3-1, in the opener of a three-game series.

Offensively, Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run single in the fifth inning for the go-ahead runs and Derek Jeter had two hits and knocked in the other run for New York, which has won three of its last four.

Freddy Garcia (2-2) pitched into the seventh inning for the win and the Yankees bullpen took care of the rest, with Mariano Rivera working around a single in the ninth for his league-leading 13th save.

Former Yankee Melky Cabrera belted a solo homer for the Royals, who have lost seven straight on the road.

Final - 5.10.2011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City Royals 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 0
New York Yankees 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 X 3 7 0
WP: Freddy Garcia (2 - 2)
SV: Mariano Rivera (13)
LP: Kyle Davies (1 - 5)

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