Ivan was Terrible, but Yanks take over AL East lead

Bryan Hoch, mlb.com


KANSAS CITY -- Robinson Cano was very open about stating that he hadn't found his opening act to the season satisfying, and now the Yankees slugger seems to be finding his second-half stroke.

Cano teed off on a monster three-run homer that splashed into the right-field fountains at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night, highlighting the Bombers' offensive attack in a 9-7 victory over the Royals.

"Especially in that situation, you want to win games," Cano said. "That's all that matters to us here -- just win games. You want to come through in a situation like that."

The second baseman's fourth-inning blast off Danny Duffy helped patch over a rare blip from the Yanks' own young hurler, Ivan Nova, who has found the Royals to be a more challenging opponent than expected this year.

The win nudged the Yankees a half-game ahead of the Boston Red Sox for sole possession of first place in the American League East.

"He was not as sharp as we've seen, but he found a way to win the game," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Nova.

Having pitched his way into discussion for the AL's Rookie of the Year Award, Nova served up seven runs in 5 1/3 innings, nearly giving back the big lead his bats had lent in support.

"I think I made a lot of good pitches, but I got hit today," Nova said. "I'm not perfect. We've got to get that out and keep working."

With his workload coming to an end in the sixth inning, Nova coughed up two runs of a three-run advantage, as the final Royals runs off him scored on Salvador Perez's two-run double to the gap in left-center.

Nova allowed run-scoring hits in the first inning to Billy Butler and Jeff Francoeur, then was hit for three runs in the third inning, including Melky Cabrera's 16th homer of the year.

"If you look at the base hits he gave up -- high slider, high curveball, high fastball," Girardi said. "He threw some good sliders and good curveballs, but it seemed like when he made a mistake, they hit it."

The start marked Nova's second rough outing this year against the Royals, who belted the hurler for eight runs (four earned) in three innings on May 12.

Yet it was still good enough for Nova's 12th win of the year, leading all Major League rookies and the most for a Yankees rookie since Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez was 12-4 in 1998.

"A win is a win -- I don't think I get paid for my ERA," Nova said. "I think I get paid for winning games. A win is a win, no matter the way you get it."

The Yankees slugged Duffy for eight runs in three-plus innings, putting together a barrage highlighted by Cano's titanic shot.

Cano capped a 12-pitch at-bat by connecting with a dead-center slider, slugging a drive that scattered fans leaning against a railing on a party porch.

"He saw some tough breaking balls and fouled off a lot of tough pitches," Girardi said. "It's as good as it gets. That's just a great at-bat."

Cano said that there were two pitches during the at-bat that he regretted fouling off, compiling seven fouls in all as an exasperated Duffy couldn't get one past his sweet left-handed stroke.

"He's a great hitter, man; what can I say?" Duffy said. "I left a slider up, and I don't throw too many sliders, but I left one up. I just threw him a cookie, and he was salivating as that ball was coming in."

Saying that he could have loaded the bases for Nick Swisher with a walk, Cano then added, "You never know what's going to happen after that."

Cano had a run-scoring hit in the third, giving him an eight-game hitting streak, and Russell Martin added a two-run single. Mark Teixeira tied the game with a fourth-inning RBI single.

Derek Jeter added a run-scoring single in the seventh off Aaron Crow, providing New York with the two-run cushion that would prove to be the margin of victory.

New York's bullpen was effective in polishing up the game after Nova's departure. Boone Logan recorded three outs, helped by a sparkling Teixeira diving play to take a sixth-inning hit away from Alcides Escobar.

"That was a phenomenal play; I don't know how he made that play," said Royals manager Ned Yost, who was ejected by home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley in the fourth inning. "It ended up being the game-saver for them. That gets us a tied ballgame."

Rafael Soriano got two outs in advance of Dave Robertson to set up Mariano Rivera's 32nd save of the season, leaving the Yankees' closer 10 shy of Trevor Hoffman's all-time record of 601.

"They've done a tremendous job in these two games here," Girardi said of his bullpen. "They've been really good -- kind of how you draw it up."

With third baseman Alex Rodriguez pegged to rejoin the Yankees in Minneapolis on Thursday, Cano said he'll gladly surrender his cleanup spot to the three-time AL Most Valuable Player, saying, "We're all waiting for him."

But for the moment, Cano is getting them where they need to go and handling the expectations just fine.

"It doesn't seem to bother him," Girardi said. "Robbie's going to hit. It seems like Robbie was born to hit."