NYY: Game 1: Yankees def. Royals

It was a family-friendly edition of Yankee baseball! Yankee coach Tony Pena had the opportunity to watch his son, Royals shortstop Tony Pena Jr., on the field. Rookie Shelley Duncan's father Dave and brother Chris were in the stands to root him on. And reliever Scott Proctor was on leave with his wife, celebrating the birth of their third child. Welcome to new baby Cooper Proctor, and congratulations to Scott and Carrie. Yes, that's "Cooper" like Cooperstown. The Proctors also have a son named Camden, after Camden Yards, along with daughter Mary Elizabeth. Clearly, Camden and Cooper must become baseball players.

In the middle of all the love, there was also some baseball to be played.

Final Score: Yankees 9, Royals 2
WP: Clemens (3-4, 3.72 ERA)
LP: Perez (5-9, 5.80 ERA)

My talking points pre-game centered on whether Clemens would be able to bounce back from previous less-than-stellar road outings this season. He did so nicely here. Seven innings, four hits, and two earned runs. One of those was on a Gload solo homer. Clemens was dominant early, not allowing his first hit until the third inning.

Perez, on the other hand, was shaky early. He gave up two runs in each of the first two innings before settling down and not allowing another run over the rest of his seven inning outing.

While Monday didn't see the onslaught of Sunday afternoon's game, there were more good signs for the offense. Every Yankee had at least one hit in this game, and every Yankee except Andy Phillips scored a run. Johnny Damon had another strong game, with three hits and two RBI. Could he finally be coming around? The Yankees sure hope so.

Jorge Posada hit a triple(!), his first of the season. You know the Yankees have to win a game when that happens. Intriguingly, Vizcaino was given the task of pitching the 8th inning of a 4-2 game over Kyle Farnsworth and passed the test with flying colors. A sign of more to come? We'll see.

Oh yeah, and that Alex Rodriguez guy (you might have heard of him?) became the first Yankee to drive in 100 runs in less than 100 games since Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. Not bad.

As for tonight...

RHP Chien-Ming Wang (10-5, 3.44 ERA) vs. RHP Scott Elarton (2-3, 9.17 ERA)

Wang hopes to rebound from a disappointing 3-2 loss against Toronto, a game he let get away from him with a shaky 7th inning. He will be going for his 11th win of the season.

Elarton will be making his first major league start since June 19th, coming off the DL (sprained right foot). He was not good in his last outing, giving up five earned runs in 2.2 IP. In fact, Elarton has not done well all season, only having one outing where he allowed three runs or less. The Royals hope that some time away to heal will lead to improved performance.

With a righty on the mound, I would expect Bobby Abreu to be back in the line-up. And given Johnny Damon's improvements, it's likely that Shelley Duncan will sit this one out.

Down on the farm: Scranton's scheduled game was rained out yesterday, meaning Phil Hughes' rehab start will have to be pushed back a day. But the washout didn't stop some big news from coming out of the Yankees' minor league system. News broke last night that much-anticipated pitchers Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy were promoted from Yankee AA-affiliate Trenton to AAA. I can't imagine this move is meant as a showcase for possible trades. Not with these two. If anything, the organization seems intent on seeing Kennedy and Chamberlain face some more refined bats at the AAA level. The plans for us to see Kennedy and Chamberlain in the Bronx seem to be for sooner rather than later. Not this year, hopefully, but maybe next year? Who knows at this point, but it's interesting.

To make room on the S/WB roster, pitchers Chase Wright and Tyler Clippard were demoted to AA. This is probably a good move for Wright, who was plucked from Trenton earlier this year and brought to the big leagues before he had refined his craft. For Clippard, I'm sure it's a disappointment given how highly he was touted before his big league struggles. Hopefully it won't be the end of the line for either.