Yankees vs. Royals - April 9

The Yankees look to bounce back tonight from yesterday's miserable showing. Ian Kennedy is looking for some redemption himself after his awful outing last week against the Rays. He'll be opposed by the Royals Zack Grienke, who beat the Tigers his first time out this season. Grienke has fought his way back from some problems on and off the field and is looking like the pitcher the Royals were expecting.

No word yet if Jorge Posada (who has never been on the DL) and/or Derek Jeter are headed to the DL. Shortstop Alberto Gonzalez was pulled out of Scranton's game last night, causing speculation that he was about to be recalled. There's also much debate in the media as to whether or not Joe Girardi should slide Alex Rodriguez over to shortstop. Morgan Ensberg and/or Wilson Betemit could then play 3rd Base.

The move would not really be fair to A-Rod who has taken zero ground balls at shortstop in recent years. While the move would probably help offensively, it could certainly hurt defensively.

In 7 career appearances, incl. 4 starts, against the Yankees, Grienke is 1-2, 8.22.

Yankees vs. Grienke

Bobby Abreu 2-5
Wilson Betemit 1-2
Melky Cabrera 0-3
Robinson Cano 2-5
Johnny Damon 3-8 2 RBI
Jason Giambi 3-8 2 HR 6 RBI
Hideki Matsui 3-11 1 HR 3 RBI
Alex Rodriguez 5-13 1 HR 2 RBI
Jose Molina 0-5

Ian Kennedy has faced the Royals just once, and didn't figure in the decision. He allowed 3 earned runs in 5 innings.

Royals vs. IPK

John Buck 1-2
Billy Butler 1-3
David DeJesus 0-3
Joey Gathright 1-2 1 SB
Ross Gload 1-2
Alex Gordon 1-2
Mark Grudzielanek 1-3
Mark Teahen 0-2

Yesterday's "Golden Sombrero" was the 4th of Alex Rodriguez. He had 2 of them during a miserable stretch of the 2006 season.

Royals outfielder David DeJesus is expected the remaining two games of the series with a bad ankle.

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