American League Game Summary - Kansas City at New York
Bronx, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Alex Rodriguez hit another historic home run, Michael Pineda got himself back on track and the New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 4-2 victory.
Rodriguez's three-run shot off Chris Young snapped a 1-1 tie in the third inning and increased his career RBI total to 1,995, two more than Yankee legend Lou Gehrig and into sole possession of third place on baseball's all- time list.
Pineda (6-2) bounced back from a pair of subpar losing starts, including one to the Royals back on May 15, to yield just one run and strike out eight over 6 2/3 effective innings.
Rodriguez finished 2-for-4 and Brian McCann added a solo home run to help the Yankees deal Kansas City a fourth consecutive loss, the Royals' longest skid since dropping four in a row from Aug. 28-31 of last season.
"A lot of it was Pineda, but some of it's us right now," Royals manager Ned Yost said of Wednesday's setback. "We're not swinging the bats. We've cooled off a little bit."
Young (4-1) served up both homers and allowed all four New York runs in a six- inning stint in which he fanned seven.
Mike Moustakas had a solo homer for the Royals and Alcides Escobar went 3- for-5 in defeat.
Stepping to the plate after Brett Gardner doubled and Young walked Chase Headley in the bottom of the third, Rodriguez laced a second-pitch slider into the left-field seats to break the deadlock and become the American League's all-time leader in RBI.
The controversial slugger is now one RBI shy of matching Barry Bonds for second place in MLB history.
"You see the guys that he's passing and it's really pretty amazing," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Rodriguez.
Pineda made the lead stand by setting down 9-of-10 hitters after Moustakas had staked the Royals to a quick 1-0 edge with a first-inning blast over the bleachers in right center. McCann answered an inning later by ripping a high fastball from Young into the second deck in right.
The big right-hander did get into some trouble in the fifth, as a double from Paulo Orlando and Escobar's single put two in scoring position with one out after Escobar advanced on a wild pitch. Pineda then fanned both Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain swinging to get out of his biggest jam of the day.
"Our pitchers really showed up in this series against an offense that was swinging the bat really well," Girardi said.
Kansas City was able to close the gap against Dellin Betances, whose leadoff walk to Cain turned into an unearned run when the outfielder swiped second and came home when Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius threw wildly to first on Kendrys Morales' infield hit.
The Royals went down in order against Andrew Miller in the ninth, however, as the Yankee closer notched his 14th save in as many opportunities.