Late last night, the Yankees beat the Royals 9-7 and moved into sole possession of first place in the American League East. They're also up 10 games in the loss column on the Tampa Bay Rays.
Before a few morning links, here are some stats to brag about.
- Derek Jeter since July 5: 34 games, 47 for 140 (.336), .390 OBP, .470 SLG, nine doubles, two triples, two home runs and 25 runs batted in.
- David Robertson's last nine outings: 8.2 innings, 10 strikeouts, two hits, zero walks. Improvement, folks.
- The Yankees have played a grand total of 40 series this year, winning 26 of them, splitting six (three of them were the two-game series type) and only being swept twice.
- Since 2006, the Yankees are 15-6 against the Royals at Kansas City.
Rodriguez lined a single to right field in the first inning, was robbed of an extra-base hit after ripping a deep fly ball to left center in the third and popped out to second in his third and final at-bat in the sixth.
Hitting may not have been an adventure for Rodriguez. But chasing foul pops down the third base line certainly was.
Rodriguez botched a pair of foul popups, failing to catch up to one in the fourth, and then overrunning one in the fifth. Both gaffes drew boos from the majority of those in attendance.