Yanks erupt late in opener
KANSAS CITY -- For seven innings, the Yankees couldn't do much right. In the eighth, they could do no wrong.
New York used a 10-run inning -- a season-high -- to overcome a four-run deficit, downing the Royals, 12-5, to kick off a seven-game road trip on Monday night.
The runs came against four Royals relievers, who couldn't hold the lead handed to them by starter Luke Hudson.
"It looked like we weren't going to be able to generate anything," Joe Torre said. "It's all about confidence; we don't feel that there's anything we can't do, offensively. If we get a little crack in the armor, we feel we can exploit it."
Bobby Abreu's two-run double snapped a 5-5 tie after Johnny Damon's two-run single brought the Yanks back from a 5-1 deficit. New York sent 13 men to the plate in the eighth, getting seven hits, including home runs by Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano.
"We play all nine innings," Damon said. "We knew if we could draw it close, all it would take is one big hit. We got a couple of big hits."
The Royals wasted the efforts of Hudson, who turned in his finest performance of the season. Hudson held the Yankees to one run over seven innings, striking out a career-high 10 batters.
Chien-Ming Wang fell short of his 17th victory of the season, taking a no-decision with 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball. T.J. Beam (2-0), who got the final out in the seventh, picked up the win.
The Yankees' lead over the Red Sox in the American League East remains at nine games, but their magic number (combination of New York wins and Boston losses) dropped to 17.
"We feel like we can win every single game, and that's a great feeling," Damon said. "This team is made to win a championship, so hopefully we can continue playing good baseball."
The Royals scored quickly against Wang, who had limited opponents to just six first-inning runs over his 28 starts this season. David DeJesus led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Mark Teahen's RBI groundout, giving Kansas City a 1-0 lead.
Hudson, whose season has been much better than his overall numbers suggest (he allowed 10 of his 44 earned runs this season in one terrible outing against the Indians on Aug. 13), worked his way out of one jam after another, keeping the Yankees off the scoreboard through the first four innings.
"He had his way with us," Torre said. "He got big outs when he had to. He made good pitches and was very impressive tonight."
The Yankees stranded runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings, going 0-for-5 with RISP. New York finally scored in the fifth on Abreu's RBI single, tying the game at 1.
Wang posted four shutout innings after the first, but Kansas City got to him again in the sixth, thanks to a double play that never happened.
After DeJesus opened the inning with a single, Mark Grudzielanek smoked a grounder toward Robinson Cano, who couldn't handle the ball cleanly. Cano recovered and got the out at first, but DeJesus reached second, scoring on Teahen's RBI single to break the tie.
Kansas City scored again on Emil Brown's RBI single, and after Wang loaded the bases, Brian Bruney came in from the bullpen, striking out Angel Berroa to limit the damage.
"He left a couple of pitches up in the inning they scored the two runs," Torre said of Wang. "Overall, I thought he pitched well enough to win. We just didn't give him a lot to work with."
Hudson got into a little trouble again in the sixth, putting runners at the corners with two outs, but he got Damon to ground out to end the inning. The Royals added to the lead in the seventh, scoring twice against Ron Villone and Beam to make it a 5-1 game.
"It was frustrating for seven innings, trying to climb the hill," Torre said. "We just couldn't get there."
Hudson was yanked after seven innings and 113 pitches, as Jimmy Gobble started the eighth.
"When you get somebody else out there, you feel like something could happen," Posada said. "The way we attacked those guys out of the bullpen, we took some great at-bats."
A-Rod singled and Posada homered, cutting the lead to 5-3. Cano singled and Melky Cabrera walked, prompting Royals manager Buddy Bell to pull Gobble for Scott Dohmann, who walked pinch-hitter Bernie Williams to load the bases.
"We've done so many things this year, and it starts with something simple," Torre said. "A base hit and a home run, then a base hit and a walk; Bernie's was a key at-bat. It put a lot of pressure on them with the top of the order coming up."
Andrew Sisco relieved Dohmann, but he couldn't stop New York, either. Damon poked a single up the middle, scoring two runs to tie the game. Sisco struck out Derek Jeter, but Abreu crushed a double to center, giving the Yankees a two-run lead.
"I've been here a month and I've seen some crazy things with this team," Abreu said. "We've come back any time, no matter what; we're always in the game."
Two batters later, with Ambiorix Burgos in the game for the Royals, Posada singled in another run -- his second hit and third RBI of the inning -- and Cano laced a three-run blast to right, finishing off the 10-run inning.
"Jorge's home run broke the ice," Torre said. "We had a couple of opportunities that slipped away from us, but there's no way to predict 10 runs in an inning. It was one of those snowball things."
"By no means did we expect that to happen," Damon said. "We had absolutely nothing going for us. Luke Hudson threw the ball well, we had some opportunities that we squandered and we were just battling."
The 10 runs scored in the eighth were the most in an inning for the Yankees since June 21, 2005, when they scored 13 runs in the eighth against Tampa Bay. It is also New York's first 10-run inning on the road since May 8, 2003, when they scored 10 in the third inning against the Mariners in Seattle.
"We figured we'd just hang out for seven innings and then score 10," Jeter joked. "You don't see that happen very often, but we're pretty good at playing nine innings."
