New York ? Hideki Matsui handled his 100th major-league home run the way he usually handles success – staying mostly quiet and trying to deflect attention.

Matsui connected for his 22nd of the season, Mike Mussina won his third straight start and the surging New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-5, Sunday.

“I’m just happy to be able to reach that,” Matsui said of his 100 big-league homers.

Bobby Abreu went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Melky Cabrera also went deep for the Yankees, who wrapped up a 5-1 homestand and improved to 18-7 since the All-Star break. They have scored 102 runs in their last eight games at Yankee Stadium and moved 11 games over .500 for the first time this year.

New York, 91â2 games back in the wild-card race after play on July 7, pulled within a half-game of Detroit, the AL wild-card leader.

Matsui has been a big part of New York’s resurgence: He is batting .338 with 14 homers and 32 RBIs since July 1.

“I think everybody overall is just starting to hit well,” Matsui said through a translator, “and I think that’s contributing to our ability to score runs.”

Matsui’s homer came one day after teammate Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player in major league history to reach 500. A relaxed A-Rod got a rare start at designated hitter in the series finale and went 0-for-4 with a sacrifice fly.

Ross Gload hit a two-run homer, and Joey Gathright had a career-high four hits for Kansas City, which has lost five of six overall and 19 of its last 20 in the Bronx. Gload went 2-for-4 and is batting .565 (13-for-23) with two homers and eight RBIs against New York this season.

“Right now we’ll be glad to get out of here,” Royals manager Buddy Bell said.