Game 44: Power, Patience, and Pettitte

Kansas City Royals 3 -- New York Yankees 8

A pair of home runs, some walks and a strong pitching performance were huge in tonight's 8-3 win over the Kansas City Royals.

Andy Pettitte took the mound for the Yankees and built upon his last impressive outing against the Reds. In 7 innings of work, Pettitte allowed just 2 runs on 2 bad pitches that became a pair of solo home runs. He struck out 8 and it seemed like many of the hits early in tonight's outing barely left the infield. Many wondered if Pettitte's decision to return would work and it has paid off without a doubt.

In Alex Rodriguez's first two at-bats tonight, he delivered a pair of home runs to silence critics questioning his absent power. It was the Yankees third baseman's first multi-home run game since last year May. A pair of Yankees runs were brought in on walks and a pair of runs were also brought in on ground outs. Derek Jeter also had 3 hits tonight to tie with Paul Waner for 16th on the all-time hits list. As a Yankees fan, the runs on the board and the win is great but looking deeper indicates that many of the problems have not been solved. The Yankees were 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position as 4 of the runs came in on walks or outs and the other 4 runs came on home runs, two by Rodriguez and one by Granderson. The win is good but as a Yankees fan who knows what this team is capable of, the expectations are still there that they improve by producing runs, not be given them.

Win - Andy Pettitte (2-1)

Loss - Will Smith (0-1)

Notable

Royals

*Eric Hosmer - 3 for 4, 2B, RBI (21)

*Mitch Maier - 2 for 4, R, Solo Home Run (2) in the 5th, RBI (5)

Yankees

*Alex Rodriguez - 2 for 4, 2 R, 2 HRs (7; 2-Run & Solo) in the 1st & 3rd, 3 RBI (18)

*Curtis Granderson - 2 for 4, 2 R, BB, Solo Home Run (14) in the 1st, RBI (25)

Current Yankees Record: 23-21

Ryan Nakada