Kansas City's David DeJesus hits a two-run double during the second inning of the Royals' game with the New York Yankees. DeJesus had two hits in K.C.'s 7-0 victory Thursday in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, Mo. ? Alex Rodriguez stayed put at 499 homers. None of his Yankees teammates came up with a big hit, either.

Jorge De La Rosa repeatedly pitched out of trouble, and the Kansas City Royals teed off on Kei Igawa in a 7-0 victory Thursday night that stopped New York’s winning streak at six.

Rodriguez was hitless in three at-bats against De La Rosa, who gave up his 400th home run on May 8, 2005, while pitching for Milwaukee. A-Rod drew an intentional walk in the first, flied out leading off the fourth and was hit by a pitch in the fifth.

He grounded out against Zack Greinke in the eighth.

But thanks to a provision in baseball’s rulebook, his 0-for-2 night might not matter.

On Friday, Rodriguez’s 32nd birthday, he will be on deck when the Yankees resume a suspended game against the Orioles in the eighth inning. If he homers in the completion of the suspended game, it would count as being hit on June 28, when the contest began. That would make the home run No. 493 – and his homer off Gil Meche on Wednesday night would become No. 500.

A-Rod would surpass Jimmie Foxx (32 years, 338 days) as the youngest player to reach 500 homers and would be the 22nd to reach the mark.

Rodriguez said he doubted the decision by Royals manager Buddy Bell to walk him was based on his pursuit of 500 homers.

“Buddy Bell’s a great baseball man, and he wants to win a game,” Rodriguez said. “He thought the best way to win the game was to put me on base. It had zero percent to do with 500 home runs. Zero.”

Alex Gordon homered, tripled and doubled, and Tony Pena Jr. and Mark Grudzielanek also tripled for Kansas City, which had lost the first three games of the four-game series.

New York went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position – hot-hitting Hideki Matsui stranded runners at second and third when he hit an inning-ending popup in the first, then left the bases loaded when he grounded out to end the fifth.

“We just couldn’t get a hit when we needed to,” manager Joe Torre said. “You know that’s going to happen from time to time, and tonight was that time.”

New York, which lost for only the third time in 14 games, dropped 71â2 games back of AL East-leading Boston but remained 41â2 games behind Cleveland, the AL wild card leader. And after getting 84 hits in their five previous games, the Yankees were held to six.

“We had a couple of opportunities where we hit the ball well, but we hit it right to some people,” said Derek Jeter, who was 0-for-4 and struck out twice. “They made some good defensive plays, and (De La Rosa) threw the ball well.”

De La Rosa (8-10) won for the first time in three starts since July 8, allowing six hits and two walks in 51â3 innings with five strikeouts.

“We’re never sure which Jorge is going to show up,” Bell said. “Tonight he was outstanding. He got most of his pitches over, and he got some big outs early in the game.”

Six of the Royals’ seven extra-base hits came against Igawa (2-3), the Yankees’ $46 million bust. He gave up five runs and seven hits in 52â3 innings, his ERA rising to 6.79. Igawa is winless since April 28, and with New York off on Monday – and able to skip Igawa’s next turn in the rotation – it appears likely he will be sent back to the minors soon and replaced by 21-year-old rookie Phil Hughes, who has been impressive during a rehab assignment.

“He’s missing some spots,” Torre said of Igawa. “His stuff was good, but he still needs to command it. I still think he’s going forward.”

Kansas City went up 4-0 with four hits – all for extra bases – in the second inning.

Kansas City made it 5-0 in the sixth, when Gordon tripled with two outs and scored on Pena’s double that chased Igawa.