Yankees fall to Royals, 5-1

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- So much for an offensive awakening.

A day after the Yankees' bats showed signs of life, they were put back into a slumber by a nondescript pitcher Saturday night in a 5-1 loss to the Royals in front of 29,121 at Kauffman Stadium.

The Royals, 0-10 at home before this series began, have beaten the Yankees in two of the first three games.

The Yankees, who had 11 hits -- including two homers -- in Friday's 6-2 victory, were limited to eight hits by Felipe Paulino and three relievers Saturday night and went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. They have lost four of five to fall to 14-13.

"It's time for us to pick it up,'' said Alex Rodriguez, who went 0-for-3. "You can only tip your cap so many times to the other guy. We have to look in the mirror and do it ourselves.''

A-Rod is part of a struggling middle of the order, which continued its season-long slump. Rodriguez (.260), Robinson Cano (.255) and Mark Teixeira (.229) went 1-for-11. Between them, Rodriguez and Cano have 15 RBIs in one-sixth of a season.

A-Rod used the word "frustrating.'' Cano did not.

"We have a great team,'' he said. "Everyone in this room can hit. We know it's going to turn around soon . . . I don't get frustrated at all. This is a long season. I don't want to send any negative messages to my mind. Just be ready for the next at-bat.''

Paulino, 4-6 with a 4.11 ERA in 20 starts last season and making his first start of 2012, pitched six shutout innings, allowing four hits and two walks and striking out six.

The 28-year-old righthander, 10-31 with a 5.28 ERA in four seasons coming in, held the Yankees hitless for 41/3 innings before Raul Ibañez's single. Russell Martin hit his third home run of the season in the seventh to account for the lone Yankees run.

"Hitting's hard. You're going to go through periods where you struggle,'' Joe Girardi said. "The key to keeping your offense consistent, to me, is not having a bunch of guys struggle at once. Maybe having one or two, and the other guys are picking you up. That hasn't necessarily been the case for us.''

Hiroki Kuroda (2-4), very good in his previous two starts, couldn't make it three straight as he became yet another Yankee who failed to produce a quality start. He lasted 41/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned), six hits and three walks.

"My role as a starter is to go as deep as possible in games,'' Kuroda said. "I want to go at least six, seven innings, so it's really frustrating.''

Alex Gordon had four hits and an RBI and Billy Butler had two doubles and three RBIs for the Royals (9-17). Two of those RBIs came in the first inning, a frame that has caused Kuroda trouble all season. Of the 17 runs he has allowed, nine of them came in the first frame. One of the two first-inning runs was unearned as Derek Jeter booted Jarrod Dyson's leadoff grounder.

The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth, but Jeter, hitting .404 with a .439 on-base percentage entering the game, grounded to short to end the inning. He finished 0-for-4.

Curtis Granderson led off the sixth against Paulino with the first of his two doubles, but he erased that with a baserunning mistake. When he tried to tag up on Rodriguez's fly ball to medium right, former Met Jeff Francoeur threw a one-hop strike to Mike Moustakas, who easily tagged out Granderson.

"As I told him [Granderson], you've got a guy probably as good as anyone throwing out there in rightfield,'' Girardi said. "You can't be thrown out.''

Girardi said it's "possible'' that Nick Swisher, hitting .284 with six homers and 23 RBIs when he went down last Sunday with a hamstring injury, will be back in the lineup Sunday.

"We've missed his bat,'' Girardi said. "There's no doubt about it.''