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Mussina sharp as Yanks complete sweep of Royals

Aug 5, 2007 - 9:49 PM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- At one point, the New Yankees had trouble scoring in support of Mike Mussina. Now they pile up runs no matter who is on the mound.

Mussina pitched effectively into the seventh inning and Bobby Abreu had a two-run single to cap a four-run second as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with an 8-5 victory.

Hideki Matsui hit his 100th major league home run for the Yankees, one day after teammate Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to reach 500 career homers. Rodriguez was given a break from the field and was 0-for-4 with a sacrifice fly as the designated hitter.

Melky Cabrera also homered for the Yankees, who have won six of their last seven games and scored an eye-poping 74 runs in that span while continuing to feast on the lower tier of the American League.

"We're just swinging the bats well. It's contagious," shortstop Derek Jeter said. "When you do that, you score runs in bunches."

The Yankees played their 25th straight game against teams with losing records and are 18-7 in those games. They open a road trip at Toronto on Monday.

"I'm not concerned with who we play. It's how we play," manager Joe Torre said.

Even with ace righthander Gil Meche on the mound, Yankee Stadium continued to be a house of horrors for the Royals, who lost for the 19th time in their last 20 games at the famed facility.

"(The Yankees) seem to be locked in on everyone," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "I'm just glad to be getting out of here now.

Meche (7-9) lasted just one batter into the fifth inning and allowed six runs and six hits.

Mussina (7-7) won his third straight start, allowing two runs and nine hits before leaving after allowing a leadoff single in the seventh. He did not walk a batter and struck out three.

"When we're playing like this, you know as a starter that if you come in and put up a couple of zeroes our offense will start clicking," Mussina said. "We're doing the things we need to do to win games."

After a shaky performance by Mike Myers, Mariano Rivera, the fourth Yankee pitcher, recorded the final four outs for his 17th save and first since July 18.

Ross Gload hit a two-run home run in the sixth and Joey Gathright had four hits for Kansas City. But the Royals hit into three double plays and lost for the fifth time in six games.

Meche lost his third straight start.

"Today I couldn't get ahead of anyone," Meche said. "The ball wasn't coming out of my hand the way I wanted it to."

In a span from late June to early July, the Yankees scored no more than two runs in four straight starts by Mussina. New York however, has scored 42 runs in his last five starts, including 31 in his last three.

After recording two quick outs in the second, Meche walked two of the next three batters sandwiched around a single to Wilson Betemit. Cabrera sliced a single to left field to bring home the first run of the game and extend his hitting streak to 11 games.

Meche walked Jeter to force home another run before Abreu lined a two-run single to center field to go give New York a 4-0 lead.

Matsui hit his 22nd homer of the season to lead off the third and increase the lead to 5-0.

"I'm just happy to able to reach (100 homers)," Matsui said through an interpreter. "I just continue to make adjustments."

Rodriguez lofted a sacrifice fly in the fourth to make it 6-0.

After Gload's homer cut the deficit to 6-2, the Yankees scored twice off Leo Nunez in the bottom of the sixth on a leadoff home run by Cabrera and a sacrifice fly by Matsui.

Mark Teahan had an RBI single off Myers in the seventh with a second run scoring on an error by Cabrera in center field.

Myers left with two runners on in the eighth before Rivera got pinch hitter Jason Smith to fly out to end the inning.

David DeJesus of the Royals went 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at 13 games