Yankees Win in The Captain's Return

newyork.cbslocal.com

By Nick Ziegler (@Ziggy26x)

July 11th, 2013

Kansas City Royals vs. New York Yankees

Final Score: Royals 4 Yankees 8

The New York Yankees were able to get the win on Thursday afternoon to salvage a split in the series with the Kansas City Royals after losing the first two games. The win is number 50 for the Yankees, but they are still in fourth place in the AL East, six games behind the Boston Red Sox.

The Royals got off to a quick start against Andy Pettitte, but with a lot of run support Pettitte was able to pick up his seventh win of the season. In the first inning the Royals scored three runs, as with the bases loaded All-Star Catcher Salvador Perez hit a two-run double to score Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer. Lorenzo Cain would then hit a sac-fly to score Billy Butler to cap off the three-run first inning. In the second inning the Royals would get another run on an Alcides Escobar base-hit, which scored David Lough. Pettitte would settle down after that not allowing anymore runs to score, as he finished going 5.2 innings allowing four runs on eight hits and one walk.



For the second straight game the Yankees offense feasted off of a Royals Starter, and this time it was Ervin Santana, who was handed his sixth loss of the season. In the first inning Derek Jeter wasted little time letting it be known that he was back in the lineup, as he scored the first Yankee run of the game from a sac-fly by Vernon Wells. In the second inning the Yankees would cut into the Royals lead a bit more with some timely two-out hitting, as a double from Austin Romine scored Eduardo Nunez, and then a base-hit from Ichiro Suzuki scored Romine to cut the lead to 4-3 after two innings. The fifth inning is where the Yankees would be able to get the lead off of Santana with more clutch two-out hitting. Lyle Overbay, with the bases loaded hit a two-run base hit to score Suzuki and Robinson Cano to give the Yankees the lead, but they weren’t done then. Back to back RBI base-hits from Zoilo Almonte and Eduardo Nunez extended the Yankees lead to 7-4. The final run from the Yankees off Santana would come in the sixth inning, as Derek Jeter got his first RBI of the season on a ground out to score Luis Cruz.

Derek Jeter had a pretty good season debut on Thursday afternoon going one for four with an RBI, and run scored, but he did have to leave the game in the eighth inning with a strained quad, and it is uncertain on how much time he may miss.

Next up for the Yankees on Friday will be the Minnesota Twins coming to town to start the final series before the All-Star break, as Hiroki Kuroda (7-6, 2.77) will be facing Scott Diamond (5-8, 5.52).