GAME THREAD: AL: NY YANKEES (54-46) at KANSAS CITY (43-57)

De La Rosa, Royals shut down Rodriguez, Yankees

<h3>KANSAS CITY 7, NY YANKEES 0</h3>KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Jorge De La Rosa helpedensure that Alex Rodriguez would have to wait at least one moreday to reach the 500 home run mark.


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


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


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


De La Rosa did issue Rodriguez an intentional pass in the firstinning 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 fifthinning threat.


"That was a big out," De La Rosa said of Matsui. "It was anexciting game for me. If we play like we played tonight, we'regoing to win a lot of games. That's a very good lineup. Ifit's not the best, it's one of the best. I kept the ball downand 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 himinside and then threw him a changeup away."


Rodriguez, who blasted his 499th career in Wednesday's 7-1triumph over the Royals, is looking to become the youngestplayer in major-league history to reach the milestone. He turns32 on Friday.


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


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


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


Facing reliever Zack Greinke in the eighth, Rodriguez groundedout to third in his final opportunity of the day to become the22nd player to hit 500 career home runs.


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

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

"Jorge was able to get out of jams," Royals catcher Jason LaRuesaid. "He didn't give up and didn't give in. He kept hiscomposure. When we needed to make a pitch, Jorge was able to dothat."


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

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


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

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


Later in the inning, Pena drew a walk for the first time in aclub-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 theymade some good defensive plays," said Yankees shortstop DerekJeter, who went 0-for-4 and struck out twice. "But you can'ttake 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 towin."


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


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


Kei Igawa (2-3) gave up five runs and seven hits with two walksand five strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. The Japanese rookie hasnot recorded a win since April 28, posting an 0-2 record with a7.32 ERA over seven starts.


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