Yankee Stadium Bronx, New York
| Team | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Kansas City Royals | 5 | 12 | 0 |
 | New York Yankees | 8 | 8 | 1 |
Highlights
The Yankees jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and despite the final score the outcome of this game never really seemed in doubt. The Yankees completed a 3 game sweep on this beautiful cloudless afternoon in front of a sold out crowd of 54,525. Royals’ starter and ace Gil Meche got into trouble in the second when with 2 outs already recorded, he issued a walk to Robinson Cano. Wilson Betemit followed with a single and then Andy Phillips worked the count for another base on balls to load the bases. Melky Cabrera singled to drive in Cano and Derek Jeter followed with a bases loaded walk to make the score 2-0. Bobby Abreu singled in Phillips and Cabrera to increase the lead to 4-0 before the ninth batter of the inning Alex Rodrigez (who incidentally on the day after hitting his career 500th home run was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts) hit a fly ball to right for the final out. The Bombers increased the lead to 5-0 in the 3rd when Hideki Matsui led off with his career 100th homer with the Yankees. They scored another solo run in the 4th when with 1 out Jeter was hit by the pitch and moved to third on a single by Abreu. Jeter was sacrificed home by a fly ball out to center by Rodrigez. Yankees starter Mike Mussina, cruised thru the first 5 with only 2 base runners getting to scoring position off a total of 4 hits and no walks. In the 6th though he hit Emil Brown with the pitch and Ross Gload followed with a homer to right to make the score 6-2. The Yankees got those runs back in the bottom of the inning that included Cabrera’s 7th home run of the season. Joey Gathright lead off the top of the 7th with a single which chased Mussina in favor of Brian Bruney who got Tony Pena Jr. to hit into a 5-4-3 double play but then got into trouble as he issued a walk to David DeJesus and a single to Esteban German. Bruney was lifted for veteran left hander Mike Myers who also had trouble as he allowed the 2 inherited runners to score. Myers allowed a run of his own in the 8th and so with 1 out Joe Torre opted for his save artist Mariano Rivera to come in and record the last 5 outs to earn his 17th save of the season.