Yanks remain hot, pound Royals

Baseball Betting Lines

07/24/2007 - Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada each knocked in a pair of runs and Roger Clemens pitched seven solid innings, as the streaking New York Yankees slammed the Kansas City Royals, 9-2, in the opener of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

After scoring 45 runs in three straight wins over Tampa Bay over the weekend, the Yankees pounded out 11 singles to win their fourth straight and improve to 15-5 over their last 20 games. The only extra base hits for New York were Damon's double and Posada's first triple of the year.

The run support was more than enough to help Clemens (3-4) earn career win No. 351. The future Hall of Famer gave up just two runs on four hits with three strikeouts and no walks.

Clemens also continued his dominance of Kansas City, improving to 25-7 in 40 career starts against the Royals.

Alex Rodriguez knocked in his 100th run of the season with an RBI single in the ninth inning. The Yankee slugger also remains two home runs shy of 500 for his career.

Royals starter Odalis Perez (5-9) pitched admirably after a rough start. The left-hander gave up four runs on five hits through the first two innings but didn't give another run over the rest of his seven innings of work.

Ross Gload homered for Kansas City, which had won four of its last five games.

New York struck for a pair of runs in both the first and second innings to assume command early.

Melky Cabrera walked with one out in the first and Derek Jeter followed with a single to left. After Rodriguez's groundout moved the runners over a base, Matsui's single to right made it 2-0 Yankees.

Robinson Cano and Shelley Duncan then both singled in the second inning and Damon's double into the left field corner handed New York a four-run advantage.

Kansas City got a run back in the fourth as Mark Grudzielanek led off with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on a Clemens wild pitch.

Gload's one-out homer in the seventh inning brought the Royals within 4-2, but the Yankees blew the game open with a five-run ninth inning.

Damon and Cabrera led off the inning with back-to-back singles and out later, Rodriguez brought home a run with a single up the middle. Jimmy Gobble then took over for Ryan Braun and promptly walked Matsui to load the bases.

Posada's single to left scored two runs, with the runners moving to second and third on the throw home. Cano followed with a sacrifice fly to score Matsui and Grudzielanek dropped Andy Phillips' routine pop out, allowing Posada to score for a seven-run Yankee advantage.

Game Notes

Clemens was facing Kansas City for the first time since the 2005 season...Perez was attempting to win back-to-back starts for the first time this season...Damon finished 3-for-5...Attendance was 30,476.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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