• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Yankees blast eight homers, rout White Sox

Aug 1, 2007 - 3:41 AM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Fans at Yankee Stadium brought their cameras to see Alex Rodriguez make history and settled for an impressive power display by his teammates.

Rodriguez remained stuck on 499 career home runs but the New York Yankees tied a franchise record with eight homers in a 16-3 rout of the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.

Hideki Matsui homered twice and was joined by Bobby Abreu, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon and rookie Shelley Duncan as the Yankees won for the 13th time in their last 18 games.

"It was a home run derby," said Rodriguez, who is hitless in his last 17 at-bats. "It was pretty cool. A lot of pictures taken today. They took the picture of the wrong guy tonight."

"It's funny, early in the game I said to Donnie (bench coach Don Mattingly), the third, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh batters hit home runs and Alex is left out. I guess they're just waiting for Alex to do it on his own."

In his first chance at his 500th career home run at home, Rodriguez was 0-for-5. He flied out to deep right field in the first, flied out to deep center in the third and was robbed of a base hit off knuckleballer Charlie Haeger when Jermaine Dye made a running catch against the wall in right-center field.

After three hard hits, Rodriguez's fourth at-bat resulted in a soft flyout to left field off Gavin Floyd. In his final at-bat, Rodriguez lined out to center field.

"I was feeling a little lonely in the corner (of the dugout) by Gator (pitching coach Ron Guidry), so I just kept switching seats around," Rodriguez said. "Tonight none of them worked."

Each time Rodriguez stepped to the plate, hundreds of flashbulbs went off from the sellout crowd of 53,958 looking to capture a piece of baseball history.

"He'll hit two tomorrow," Posada said. "That's just the way baseball is, it's a funny game."

After Rodriguez finished his at-bats, most of the flashbulbs went off and fans missed an opportunity to take pictures of other Yankees hitting home runs.

Abreu started things with a long drive into the upper deck in right field, which staked the Yankees to a 3-0 lead. Two batters later, Matsui lined a 2-1 pitch from Jose Contreras (5-14) into the right-center field bleachers.

It was Matsui's 20th home run and 12th in July. Matsui's latest blast turned out to be the game-winning run as Mike Mussina (6-7) allowed a three-run shot to Juan Uribe in the second.

But the Yankees came back with a five-run third that knocked out Contreras. After Rodriguez made the first out, the next six Yankees reached base.

Cano hit a three-run home run that made it 7-3. It was his ninth home run of the season and fifth in July.

Cano's blast to right ended Contreras' night and two batters later, Cabrera sliced his sixth homer just over the wall in left field.

The Yankees scored 54 runs in their last three home games and went over double digits when Posada hit his 12th home run with two outs in the fourth. They built a 10-run lead when Matsui hit a two-run shot off Floyd in the sixth and added two in the seventh as Damon and Duncan hit solo shots.

"I was quite surprised," Matsui said through an interpreter. "I've never really experienced anything like this. I was pleasantly surprised."

Duncan's fourth career home run tied the club record set on June 28, 1939 against the Philadelphia Athletics in the first game of a doubleheader. In that game, Joe DiMaggio and Babe Dahlgren hit two home runs apiece while Bill Dickey, George Selkirk, Joe Gordon and Tommy Henrich also connected.

"I don't think I've been involved in a Yankee game in which we hit, how many did we hit tonight? Eight, that's pretty awesome," Rodriguez said.

"I think you start losing count after a while," Damon said about the eight home runs. "I really don't know. Maybe in X-Box or something."

Duncan's home run also set Chicago's club record for home runs allowed. The previous mark had been seven on May 2, 2002 when Mike Cameron hit four home runs for the Seattle Mariners.

The 16-hit attack enabled Mussina to post consecutive victories for the first time in nearly three months. He allowed three runs and six hits in six innings.

"Things just looked right for us from the beginning," Mussina said. "You're not going to get eight of them every night but it's good to see."

Contreras, who was acquired from the Yankees exactly three years ago for Esteban Loaiza was roughed up for seven runs and eight hits in 2 2/3 innings.

"I'm embarrassed for myself, the fans, family and the team," Contreras said through an interpreter. "I'm not happy with how I'm pitching."

Contreras, who won 28 games for Chicago over the previous two seasons, dropped his career-high seventh straight start and also fell to 1-10 in his last 12 starts.

"Now I'm worried about him," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "I was real optimistic about him today."

Besides Contreras' latest sub-par outing it was a frustrating night for the White Sox, who dropped their fourth in a row to the Yankees.

Manager Guillen was ejected by plate umpire Phil Cuzzi in the bottom of the first and first baseman Paul Konerko was tossed by Cuzzi in the sixth after he was called out on strikes.

"I have 23 years experience, I don't see any umpire disrespect players and managers like he does," Guillen said. "If they're going to fine me, I'm willing to pay it."

"I wasn't even too overly upset," Konerko said. "No question it was a borderline pitch. I felt on the other side, we weren't getting those."