Kansas City's Mark Teahen, left, and Mark Grudzielanek, right, congratulate closer Joakim Soria. Soria closed out the Royals' 3-2 victory over the Yankees on Monday in New York.

Kansas City outfielder Jose Guillen, top, rounds the bases as New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, foreground, throws down a rosin bag. Guillen's ninth-inning blast lifted the Royals to a 3-2 victory Monday in New York.

New York ? Jose Guillen sauntered over to his locker after his postgame shower Monday and waved a towel up and down in front of him, eagerly soaking in the cool air of the clubhouse.

Good luck, Jose. Tough to cool down after this series.

Guillen finished off a terrific stretch against the New York Yankees in style, hitting a tiebreaking solo home run off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning to lift the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 win.

“That’s a tough one. That’s the last guy I want to face coming into the ninth inning,” Guillen said. “I was hoping it was somebody else. … I was just kind of realizing he’s going to come with that cutter and I guessed pretty good right there.”

Guillen went deep on an 0-2 pitch from Rivera (2-2), pumping his right arm as he watched the ball sail over the fence while rounding first base. Rivera turned around and shouted several times after the drive – a rare show of emotion for the longtime closer.

“You make your pitches, you are able to get him out,” said Rivera, who also surrendered a tiebreaking homer to David DeJesus on Saturday. “I didn’t make my pitches.”

It was Guillen’s 11th homer of the season and fourth in the past three games. He went 9-for-16 in the four-game series with four homers and 10 RBIs, and also scored six runs to help the Royals gain a split. The mercurial outfielder even threw out two runners in Saturday’s 12-11 loss to New York.

“That’s as good a series as I’ve seen a player have, especially in the setting that it happened,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said. “He’s worked hard to get where he is.”

The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth, and Melky Cabrera hit a trickler up the line. First baseman Mark Teahen quickly scooped the ball and neatly tossed to reliever Joakim Soria covering the bag for the final out.

“Melky is a fast runner,” Soria said. “I just tried to run as fast as I can.”

Yasuhiko Yabuta (1-0) got Bobby Abreu to ground out with runners on first and second to end the eighth and earn his first major league win.

Soria got his 14th save. In his previous appearance, he blew his first save opportunity of the season against New York on Saturday.

“We had a shot again,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We kept battling.”

Kansas City got a nice effort from Luke Hochevar and won for only the fourth time in 21 games. The Royals also improved to 5-29 at Yankee Stadium since the start of the 2000 season.