Yankees 12, Royals 5

A confession: I mised the first, the important, portion of the top of the eighth, when the Yanks scored six runs and basically demoralized the Royals out of the game. Different circumstances, I could see the White Sox or (pre-catastrophe) Red Sox coming back, and maybe the Angels or Mets. Not the Royals, though.

Did anyone notice? A-Rod, on base twice in the eighth, and scored twice. Which only encourages people to write, "Nyanh, nyah, who cares, they won by seven runs." Which misses the point. They won by seven runs in no small part because of him.

We can write off Wang's outing as an unfortunate accumulation of bloops and bleeders. More important, the exhausted bunch (Proctor, Kyle, Mo) gets another day of rest.

Magic number is at 17. I'm hoping they clinch on September 24th at the latest, so to give their tired bullpen arms a chance.

This is the most single-minded Yankee team I remember since 1998, a team (like that team, maybe the best ever) that can beat you 16-14 or 2-1, either way.