Rain delays of two hours and another one of about 30 minutes could not stop the Kansas City Royals from beating the New York Yankees last night at Kauffman Stadium, 4-3. The win stopped a five game losing streak for the Royals.
The Royals would waste little time getting on the scoreboard as they would plate three runs in the bottom of the second. A double by Yuniesky Betancourt would score Brett Gardner and Mike Aviles. The third run would come via a sac fly from Jason Kendall.
The New York Yankees would answer that by scoring three runs of their own in the top of the third. But, then the rain would start to fall halting the game for about 30 minutes.
Once that delay was over, Billy Butler would hit the go ahead home run in the fifth, right before the second rain delay. This one would last more than two hours.
The tarp would come off the field for the second time at about 12:30 this morning. The Royals bullpen would take over from there and shut out the Yankees over the next four innings.
Joakim Soria would pick up his 25th straight save in the ninth. This broke the Royal team record for consecutive saves that had been held by Jeff Montgomery since 1993.
There was some news off the field yesterday for Kansas City, as they traded Jose Guillen for a player to be named later to the San Francisco Giants. Guillen had been designated for assignment by Kansas City on August 5th.
Game two of the series is tonight as Sean O’ Sullivan will get the ball for the Royals against the Yankees 13 game winner Phil Hughes.
First pitch is 6:10.
