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Clemens gets 351st win as Yankees crush Royals

Jul 24, 2007 - 5:43 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Rogers Clemens pitched seven effective innings en route to recording his 351st career win and the New York Yankees' offense continued to churn out runs, posting a 9-2 triumph over the Kansas City Royals on Monday in the opener of a four-game series.

Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada all drove in two runs for the Yankees, who have won nine of their last 11 contests.

Clemens (3-4), who was making his ninth start of the season, surrendered just two runs and four hits with no walks and three strikeouts.

"Give Roger a four-run lead and he knows what to do with it," Torre said.

"From that point on, I just tried to go out and throw strikes and try to stay away from walking anybody," Clemens said. "The guys got it done and we added to it late."

The 44-year-old righthander retired the first eight hitters he faced before Tony Pena Jr., whose father is the New York first base coach, singled with two outs in the third inning.

"He was throwing a lot of sinkers, maybe it was a splitter, but the ball was sinking a lot," said Royals rookie third baseman Alex Gordon, who went 0-for-4. "It was nothing too overpowering. He was just hitting his spots and pitching well."

The Royals threatened in the sixth inning after the first two batters reached base, but Clemens got Mark Grudzielanek to ground into a double play.

"Double plays are good," Clemens said. "Every game you're out there, you know you're going to be caught in a spot where you're going to have to pitch a little bit. Fortunately, tonight it worked out for me to get out of somewhat of a jam."

Clemens improved to 25-12 against the Royals in his career, including a 6-0 record in seven starts as a Yankee.

The Yankees got on the scoreboard early when Matsui delivered a single into right field off Odalis Perez (5-9) to plate Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. Matsui has 65 RBI this season and nine over his last four games.

"I think Matsui's hit in the first inning was the key for us to get on the board quick and Roger could go out there and relax," Damon said.

Damon, who had three hits, extended New York's advantage to 4-0 in the second by belting a two-run double to left.

"I haven't felt decent at the plate all year except for a couple of games here or there," Damon said. "Hopefully, I will get more playing time and stay in the lineup. Things run a lot more smoother when I am doing something. I'm always hard on myself. I always feel like if I go, the team is going to go."

"That was the ball game," Perez said. "They are the Yankees. If you make any mistakes, you're going to pay for it."

Posada provided more breathing room in the ninth as his two-run single highlighted a five-run inning. The All-Star catcher sent a base hit into left-center field to give the Yankees a 7-2 lead.

New York added two more runs in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Robinson Cano and Grudzielanek's fielding error, which allowed Posada to score.

"It is always frightening when you score a couple in the first and a couple in the second and then stop scoring," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

Alex Rodriguez drove in his 100th run in the ninth, becoming the first Yankee since Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio in 1937 to have 100 RBIs before 100 games.

"That is pretty incredible what he's done," Torre said.

"100 or 500 (he has 498 career home runs) never came to my mind once," Rodriguez said. "I never thought about it. It (100 RBIs in 99 games) is pretty cool, but I'm focused on the team. I'm proud of it, but the biggest key for us is to score some runs and play good defense to stop them from scoring runs."

The Yankees have scored 54 runs on their current winning streak.

Perez pitched seven innings and hurled a season-high 111 pitches, giving up four runs and eight hits with three walks and one strikeout. It was just the third time in 21 starts this season that the 30-year-old Dominican has pitched beyond six innings.

"We've been using our bullpen a lot, so we needed some innings from Odalis," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "He kept us in the game, but we just couldn't do anything with Roger."

Grudzielanek, who had two four-hit games over the weekend at Detroit, doubled to leadoff the fourth and later scored on a Clemens' wild pitch, cutting the deficit to 4-1.

Ross Gload blasted Clemens' 1-0 offering into the Royals bullpen in the seventh for his third home run of the season, reducing the Yankees' advantage to 4-2.

The Royals, who were playing their first home game since July 8, had won four of their last five contests.