A-Rod Can Hit Home Runs Again

Alex Rodriguez's days of pressing to hit home runs are behind him. With #600 in the rear view mirror, A-Rod exploded tonight for three home runs as the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 8-3.

The game was tied at one apiece when A-Rod stepped to the plate in the 6th and drilled a Sean O'Sullivan pitch to deep center field for his 19th home run of the season. Two batters later Jorge Posada went even deeper to center with a tremendous blast for a 3-1 Yankees lead. The Yankees were still not done. The next hitter, Curtis Granderson, pulled an O'Sullivan pitch into the right field seats to increase the lead to 4-1.

The Royals got a couple of runs back off Phil Hughes to cut the Yankees lead to 4-3, but A-Rod was just getting started. In the 7th, he went to center again with a man aboard for a 6-3 lead. Former Yankees farmhand Kanekoa Texeira was the victim for career home run #603.

Just as he had in the 7th, Mark Teixeira reached safely in the 9th prior to A-Rod going deep. Home run #21 on the year and 604 for his career came off Greg Holland and was his longest of the night- a 439 ft shot into the left field seats. It was the 4th 3-home run game of A-Rod's career.

Hughes had an up and down evening and had trouble locating his fastball, but was solid enough (6 IP 3 ER) to pick up his 14th win of the season.

Notes

A-Rod now has 97 RBI and stole his 4th base on the front end of a double steal. Jorge Posada picked up steal #2 on the back end of the play.

Derek Jeter extended his career high errorless streak to 51 games.

Joba Chamberlain has not allowed an earned run in his last 8.2 IP.

UPDATE - 1:00 PM 8/15 - According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since hitting home run #500 against the Royals, A-Rod has hit more home runs against KC (13) than any other team. He's gone deep 12 times against both the Angels and Rays.