Alex Rodriguez got 2 hits last night, but none of them were his 600th career home run. (Photo by Bill Menzel)

YANKEE STADIUM -- Alex Rodriguez (2 for 4, RBI) didn't hit his 600th career home run last night, but the Yankees (61-34), after a relentless downpour that caused a 1-hour, 25-minute rain delay, still managed to be a royal pain for Kansas City (41-55) behind A.J. Burnett's 58-pitch, 5 scoreless innings and an 11-hit attack in a dominant, 7-1 win.

Burnett (W, 8-8), who was making his first start since "Plexiglass-gate" - an incident in which the Yankee starter cut his hand on a lineup card-holder made of plexiglass on a clubhouse door that he pushed in frustration of his poor outing vs. Tampa Bay last week - worked his curve over effectively, getting inning-ending double plays in both the first and fourth inning.

"He had very good command of his curve ball and got a lot of ground ball outs," said New York manager Joe Girardi. "He did really well for us tonight."

He did, but strangely enough, Yankee Stadium, where Burnett has a 5-4 record this season, isn't a place he's been at his best lately, as the win he earned over the Royals was his first at home since May 30.

It took A.J. Burnett (W, 8-8) 58 pitches to get through 5 innings of shutout ball. (Photo by Bill Menzel)

"It means a lot to me," said Posada of reaching the mark. "The RBIs are really special."

In his postgame interview, Joe Girardi, who was the primary catcher for New York while a young Jorge Posada was waiting in the wings during the late-1990s dynasty, took time to acknowledge the feat.

Jorge Posada knocked in his 1000th RBI in New York's 7-1 win over Kansas City. He later started working on reaching 2000 with an RBI single later in the game. (Photo by Bill Menzel)

"That was great," said Girardi. "1000 RBIs from behind the plate, knowing how grueling the position is - it's quite an accomplishment."

In the third inning, Rodriguez reached on an infield single to third, and with 1 out in the rain-drenched fifth, Bannister struck him out looking with a 2-2, 89 mph fastball.

As Rodriguez started walking off the field, the rain grew in intensity; by 8:26 p.m., the Stadium grounds crew immediately began covering the infield with the tarp.

The rain delay, which featured thunder, lightning and heavy, wind-spun rain so thick that the field was barely visible, lasted an 1 hour and 25 minutes.

When play resumed at 9:50 p.m., Cano, facing righty reliever Victor Marte (pitching for Bannister), flew out to deep center to end the fifth.

The Yankees' 4-0 lead would shoot to 6-0 on Brett Gardner's 2-run single in the sixth inning.

Mark Teixeira led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk, and Rodriguez came to bat for the 3rd time. The camera flashes were going off throughout the entire stadium with Marte's every pitch.

Unfortunately for the fans, they'd be disappointed again, as Rodriguez lined a single to right. Teixeira advanced to third on the play, and the Yankees' lead became 7-0 when he scored on Posada's RBI single to left.      

Later in the game, in what appeared to be a direct challenge, right-handed reliever Kanekoa Texeira all but intentionally walked the Yankee with whom he nearly shares an indentical surname, Mark Teixeira, with 2 outs in the eighth. Rodriguez let it rip on Texeira's first pitch, a 91 mph fastball, but the pitch jammed the Yankee third baseman, who hit a soft, shattered-bat grounder down the third base line to Wilson Betemit, who completed the 5-3 putout to end the inning.

Once again, the moment, the home run Yankees Universe has been waiting for won't take place for at least another day. Rodriguez himself wasn't available for comment.

The Royals' lone run came on Yuniesky Betancourt's RBI double in the eighth inning off reliever Chad Gaudin (3.0 IP, 4H 1R), who came in to pitch for Burnett in the top of the sixth. New York reliever Jonathan Albaladejo concluded the night with a 1-2-3 ninth, picking up 2 strikeouts in the process. 

Asked by Latino Sports if he would've felt extra pressure trying to make Alex Rodriguez's 600th home run hold up had he hit it, A.J. Burnett joked, "I was hoping for a home run and a no-hitter. That would've been a storybook ending."

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