Kansas City @ New York preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 30, 2009 ) Kansas City 4, NY Yankees 3

CC Sabathia puts a personal eight-game winning streak on the line when the New York Yankees host the Kansas City Royals as the two teams begin a four-game series Thursday night.

Sabathia, 15-10 in his career against the Royals, has not lost a game since May 23 when he was beaten by the New York Mets 6-4. Since then he has won eight of his last 10 starts and lowered his ERA a run to 3.13.

Sabathia is tied with David Price for the American League lead with 12 victories. He has allowed just 116 hits in 138 innings.

Thursday's mound matchup looks like a mismatch as the Royals will counter with journeyman Bruce Chen (5-3). Chen is 1-3 lifetime against the Yankees.

Yankee Stadium in general has been a house of horrors for Kansas City. The Royals haven't won a series in New York since they took two of three from the Yankees in 1999. Since then, it's been nothing but misery, with the Royals compiling an 8-33 record on the Yankees' home turf.

The Royals went 1-3 in New York last season and 2-2 in 2008, but were just 1-17 from 2003 to 2007.

And to make things bleaker for the Royals, New York won't have to face Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke in the series. Greinke dominated the Toronto Blue Jays in a 5-2 victory on Wednesday.

Despite being just 6-9 on the season, Greinke is on a roll. He surrendered two runs and six hits in eight innings, striking out nine and not allowing a walk. The right-hander is 5-1 with a 2.89 ERA in his last seven starts and has 47 strikeouts and just eight walks in the stretch. Greinke has not allowed a homer in his last five starts and ended the Blue Jays' streak of games with a homer at 13.

The Yankees pounded out 15 hits in a 10-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.

The game featured a bizarre turn of events. After jumping out to a 6-0 lead the Yankees were clinging to a precarious 7-5 advantage in the seventh inning Brett Gardner was at the plate with two men on base. Gardner then argued a strike call and was ejected by the home plate umpire.

The Yankees summoned Colin Curtis to finish the at-bat for Gardner and Curtis belted his first major league homer four pitches later off Scot Shields to propel the Yankees to the win.

New York leads the Tampa Bay Rays by 2 1/2 games in the American League East standings. The injury-riddled Boston Red Sox have fallen seven games off the pace, giving the Yankees plenty of breathing room in the playoff picture.