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A-Rod hopes to keep Yankees rolling

Sep 8, 2007 - 2:22 PM NY Yankees (79-62) at Kansas City (62-78) 7:10 pm EDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) - Alex Rodriguez will hope his red-hot bat propels the New York Yankees to their fourth consecutive win when they face the Kansas City Royals in the second of a three-game series Saturday.

Rodriguez belted a solo home run in Friday's 3-2 triumph over the Royals for his 513th career blast, passing Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews for 17th on the all-time list.

The 32-year-old Rodriguez has homered four times in his last three games. The superstar has a great chance of collecting his third American League MVP trophy this season, posting a .315 batting average with a major league-leading 49 homers and 135 RBI.

Andy Pettitte (12-8, 3.82 ERA) will take the mound for the Yankees, who have won seven of their previous 10 games and hold a three-game advantage over the Detroit Tigers (76-65) in the American League wild card.

After going 6-0 in August, Pettitte gave up five runs and 11 hits with two walks and seven strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings in an 8-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Sunday.

The Royals will counter with Brian Bannister (12-7, 3.16), who has won each of his last four starts. Kansas City has posted an 8-1 record the last nine times the 26-year-old righthander has started.