Yankees 8, Royals 5

(Sunday, August 5th) Final Score: New York 8, Kansas City 5 Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera each homered and drove in two runs, leading the New York Yankees to an 8-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals and a sweep of the three-game series at Yankee Stadium. Alex Rodriguez, a day after finally reaching the 500-homer club, went 0-for-4 with a sacrifice fly as the designated hitter. Bobby Abreu chipped in three hits with a pair of runs batted in for New York, which hadnt swept a series since taking three straight against Arizona from June 12-14. Mike Mussina (7-7) pitched into the seventh to win his third straight start. He gave up two runs on nine hits with no walks and three strikeouts over six- plus innings. Mariano Rivera got the last four outs for his 17th save. "Im just trying to pitch well, get to the latter third of the game," said Mussina. "The guys are scoring runs. As long as I can do my job, were going to have a good day. Today, I was able to put up a lot of zeroes the first part of the game and the guys scored a lot of runs." Gil Meche (7-9) lost his third straight start. The Kansas City righty was roughed up for six runs on six hits and five walks with two strikeouts in just four-plus innings. Joey Gathright went 4-for-4 with an RBI single, while Ross Gload added two hits with a two-run homer in defeat. The Royals have lost five of their last six. "Ill be glad to get out of here," said Royals manager Buddy Bell. "These guys are as hot as any team weve played all year." The Yankees put together a four-run rally with two outs in the second inning to take the lead. After Meche retired the first two batters, Robinson Cano walked, Wilson Betemit singled and Andy Phillips drew a walk to load the bases. Cabrera then slapped a single to left to score one run and Derek Jeter walked to force in another. Abreu followed with a base hit in front of center fielder David DeJesus to plate two more. "That second inning was terrific for us," said Yankees manager Joe Torre. "Two outs and nobody on, three walks and a couple of key hits. It was the key to the game." The Royals stranded runners on the corners in the top of the third and Matsui led off the bottom of the inning with his 22nd homer of the year to make it 5-0. It was also his 100th homer as a Yankee. "Hes been so important and so consistent," stated Torre about Matsui. New York tacked on another run in the fourth when Jeter was hit by a pitch, raced to third on a single by Abreu and scored on a fly ball to deep center field by Rodriguez. "You mix your pitches against anybody, youll get them out," lamented Meche. "Its just a matter of being ahead in the count and today I couldnt get ahead of anybody." Mussina, meanwhile, cruised through five innings before running into trouble in the sixth. After a single and a double play gave the veteran two outs, he hit Emil Brown with a pitch and Gload followed with his fourth homer of the season. Alex Gordon then singled, but Mussina struck out John Buck to end the inning. Cabrera led off the bottom of the sixth with his seventh homer of the season, a blast into the right field seats, to make it 7-2. Jeter then drew a walk, stole second and took third on a single by Abreu before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Matsui. Mussina left the contest after yielding a leadoff single to Gathright in the seventh, but Brian Bruney got a double play ball off the bat of Tony Pena before issuing a walk to DeJesus and a single to Esteban German. Mike Myers then came on and Mark Teahen greeted him with a base hit to center. DeJesus scored as Cabrera overran the ball for an error and German was able to race home from first to make it 8-4. Brown, though, bounced out to the box for the third out. The Royals tacked on another run in the eighth. Buck drew a two-out walk from Myers and took second on defensive indifference before scoring on a base hit by Gathright. Rivera came on and got pinch hitter Jason Smith on a fly ball to center before retiring the side in order in the ninth. "We still have to find a way not to go to [Rivera] in the eighth inning," Torre remarked. "The good part about today, is Mo came in and pitched four outs and threw 10 pitches." Game Notes Matsui became the first Japanese-born player to reach the 100-homer mark in the majors...Jeter tied Hall of Famer Bill Dickey for seventh on New Yorks all-time games played list with 1,789...Cabrera has an 11-game hitting streak...Mussina improved to 17-7 lifetime against the Royals, including 2-0 this season...The Yankees have scored at least seven runs in nine consecutive home games, the longest streak, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, since Boston scored seven or more in 14 straight in 2005...Gload was 6-for-11 in the series and is 13-for-23 against the Yankees this season...New York starts a six-game road trip on Monday afternoon in Toronto. After three games against the Blue Jays, the Yankees will then visit Cleveland...The Royals have Monday off and return home Tuesday for the start of a three-game series against Minnesota.