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Rodriguez still in search of 500th homer vs. Royals

Aug 3, 2007 - 2:40 PM Kansas City (48-59) at NY Yankees (58-50) 7:05 pm EDT

BRONX, New York (Ticker) - Maybe all Alex Rodriguez needs to hit his 500th home run is another game against the Kansas City Royals.

Rodriguez and the New York Yankees aim to get back on track when they take on the Royals in the opener of a three-game set at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

The All-Star third baseman blasted his 499th career homer on July 25 at Kansas City. However, Rodriguez has struggled since, falling into a career-long 0-for-22 slump before stroking two hits against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday afternoon.

But the slugger is hoping another contest against the Royals will help him reach the milestone. New York took three out of four from Kansas City last week with Rodriguez leading the charge.

The Yankees also took two of three from the White Sox this week but suffered a wild 13-9 loss on Thursday afternoon in the series finale. Roger Clemens allowed eight runs - only three earned - and nine hits in just 1 2/3 innings, his shortest outing since June 14, 2000.

New York aims to get back on track behind Chien-Ming Wang (12-5, 3.61 ERA), who yielded three runs and nine hits in six frames, while striking out one and walking four, in a 10-6 win at Baltimore in his last start.

The righthander has won nine of his last 12 outings.

Kansas City counters with Odalis Perez (6-9, 5.73), who allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings, while striking out four and not walking a batter, in a 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday.

He has struggled mightily against the Yankees in his career, posting a 0-2 mark with an inflated 9.26 ERA in two starts.