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De La Rosa, Royals shut down Rodriguez, Yankees

Jul 27, 2007 - 5:08 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Jorge De La Rosa helped ensure that Alex Rodriguez would have to wait at least one more day to reach the 500 home run mark.

De La Rosa pitched effectively into the sixth inning and Mark Grudzielanek hit an RBI triple to cap a four-run second as the Kansas City Royals avoided a four-game sweep with a 7-0 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday.

De La Rosa (8-10) hurled 5 1/3 scoreless innings, yielding six hits and two walks with five strikeouts as Kansas City snapped New York's six-game winning streak.

The 26-year-old De La Rosa, who surrendered Rodriguez's 400th career home run on June 8, 2005, held the Yankee superstar hitless in three plate appearances.

De La Rosa did issue Rodriguez an intentional pass in the first inning and hit him with a pitch to load the bases in the fifth. De La Rosa got Hideki Matsui to ground out to end the fifth inning threat.

"That was a big out," De La Rosa said of Matsui. "It was an exciting game for me. If we play like we played tonight, we're going to win a lot of games. That's a very good lineup. If it's not the best, it's one of the best. I kept the ball down and my changeup and curveball were working pretty good."

De La Rosa got Rodriguez to fly out to center in the fourth.

"That was a changeup," De La Rosa said. "I was working him inside and then threw him a changeup away."

Rodriguez, who blasted his 499th career in Wednesday's 7-1 triumph over the Royals, is looking to become the youngest player in major-league history to reach the milestone. He turns 32 on Friday.

"It is remarkable how little I am thinking about it," Rodriguez said.

But the cameras clicking in the stands are a reminder that he is nearing history.

"I've never seen so many flashes go off," Rodriguez said. "It kind of reminded me."

Facing reliever Zack Greinke in the eighth, Rodriguez grounded out to third in his final opportunity of the day to become the 22nd player to hit 500 career home runs.

De La Rosa weaved his way into and out of trouble as the Yankees went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the first six innings, stranding nine runners - eight in scoring position.

"We couldn't get a hit when we needed to," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "We got his pitch count up early. When we had a chance to get to him, he was better than we were."

"Jorge was able to get out of jams," Royals catcher Jason LaRue said. "He didn't give up and didn't give in. He kept his composure. When we needed to make a pitch, Jorge was able to do that."

Grudzielanek gave Kansas City a 4-0 lead in the second when he smacked a 0-2 offering from Yankee starter Kei Igawa (2-3) to deep right field for a triple, which plated David DeJesus.

Grudzielanek is batting .486 with five RBI and 10 runs scored over his current eight-game hitting streak. The 37-year-old Wisconsin native has raised his batting average from .275 to .302 in that span.

The four-run Kansas City second started when Tony Pena followed Alex Gordon's double with a triple to give the Royals a 1-0 advantage. After Esteban German drew a two-out walk, David DeJesus drove in two runs by driving a double to deep right.

Gordon gave Kansas City a 7-0 lead in the eighth inning with his seventh home run of the season.

Later in the inning, Pena drew a walk for the first time in a club-record 244 plate appearances.

The Yankees had scored 70 runs in their six-game streak.

"We had a few opportunities and we hit the ball well, but they made some good defensive plays," said Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who went 0-for-4 and struck out twice. "But you can't take anything away from De La Rosa. He was throwing 93-94 (mph) and mixed his pitches well. I thought he had a good curveball. The Royals beat us today. They played well and deserved to win."

Royals manager Buddy Bell said the victory might have been the Royals' best all-around game of the season with shutout pitching, brilliant defense by Pena Jr. and Gordon and eight extra-base hits.

"I'm sure there are some other games we needed to win just as bad as we needed to win this one, but winning the game and how we won it, I can say it's at the top anyway, considering who we're playing, one of the hottest teams and maybe the best team we've played," Bell said. "After what the Yankees did the first three games against us, we needed that."

Kei Igawa (2-3) gave up five runs and seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. The Japanese rookie has not recorded a win since April 28, posting an 0-2 record with a 7.32 ERA over seven starts.

In his first appearance with the Yankees since being acquired in a trade from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Jose Molina went 2-for-4. The Puerto Rican catcher batted .224 with 10 RBI in 40 games with the Angels this season.