Andy Pettitte must have been chomping at the bit to pitch today against the Royals. You see, Pettitte enjoys pitching against them. The Royals have the worst record against him in the American league, so this was the perfect fit for a struggling Yankees team; pitch Pettitte. And pitch him they did.
Pettitte almost threw a donut up for the Royals in the Runs column, and if it were not for a 1st inning RBI double by Jose Guillen, he would have done it. The Royals were shut down today, scoring only one run, and suffering from 8 straight scoreless innings. Uncharacteristic of this new young Royals team.
John Bale (0-2) ended up pitching 6 innings, and was handed the lose in this one. He gave up 4 runs, off of 8 hits, struck out 3, and walked 1. It was not a terrible outing, in fact it wasn’t bad at all. Without offensive production, there are few pitchers even on their good days that can win this type of game. When you are only given 1 run to play with, in the first inning, and then get shut out the rest of the way, it makes things tough.
Even tougher was the relief pitching in this one. Hideo Nomo pitched 3 innings, gave up 2 runs on 4 hits. The distracting statistic to see is that 2 of those hits came from back-to-back homers off the bats of Rodriguez, and Posada, with no men on and 2 out! Not good. That was a little disheartening to see.
The offense was quieted today, as the Yankees steal one away from the Royals. The thorn in the Royals side, Andy Pettitte, came away with the win, and the Royals record slips to 6-3.
Next up are the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium. Hopefully this homecookin’ will result in some more wins for the home team, and keep the Royals shocking the league with their first place position among the American League Central teams.