Yankees and Royals set for 3 in KC

The Yankees have to be feeling a whole lot better about themselves this morning after yesterday's 11-2 smack down against the Orioles. The Yankees have moved on to Kansas City, MO now to play the Royals for a 3-game weekend series.

This is the first home series for the Royals, who took two of three in Chicago from the White Sox. The Royals got outstanding pitching in the series from Gil Meche, who will face the Yankees Sunday, Zack Greinke, and Kyle Davies. The three combined to allow just one earned run in 21 innings and struck out 20 batters.

Probable Pitchers:

Friday (4:10 pm EDT): Andy Pettitte vs. Sidney Ponson
Saturday (7:00 pmEDT): CC Sabathia (0-1, 12.46) vs. Horacio Ramirez
Sunday (2:00 pm EDT): Joba Chamberlain vs. Gil Meche (0-0, 1.29)

Notes

The Yankees were 5-2 losers in the Royals home opener last season. The teams split the 10 games played with the season opening series being the only one played in Kansas City.

Robinson Cano has a 14-game hitting streak dating back to last season. His 4 runs scored yesterday were a career high. Cano's new found patience is already paying dividends at the plate. He has three straight multi-hit games to start the season and has also walked three times. It took him 19 games to reach that total last season.

Nick Swisher tied a career high with 5 RBI yesterday. Joe Girardi said he expects Swisher to get three starts a week.

Ramiro Pena picked up his career hit in first career at-bat on Thursday. The Yankees retrieved the baseball, and true to big league tradition, Johnny Damon switched baseballs and threw it in the crowd as Pena watched from first base.


The Yankees face their former teammate Sidney Ponson today, which means Derek Jeter and Damon must be salivating. The captain is 29-77 (.377) against Ponson with 5 home runs, while Damon is a .346 hitter.

The rest of the squad against Ponson:

Mark Teixeira 8-15 (.533)
Jorge Posada 16-52 (.302) 1 HR
Hideki Matsui 9-27 (.333) 2 HR
Robinson Cano 2-7 1 HR