Like night and day.

Or in this case day and night.  The Yankees washed away the ugliness of Thursday afternoon's loss to the White Sox with a crisp, efficient  beatdown of the overmatched Royals, 7-1, on a hazy, hot Friday night in the Bronx.  Chien-Ming Wang pitched like, well, Chien-Ming Wang, the defense was spectacular and the Yanks showed they still know how to play small ball as the Bombers improved their second-half record to 16-7.

The Good:

Chien-Ming Wang.  The Wanger picked up his 10th victory in his last 11 decisions on Friday night.  It looks almost effortless for Wang at times and it's borderline shocking when teams string together more than one base hit against him.  The only run he gave up came on three straight ground balls that turned into singles in the third inning.  Shocking.  Wang upped his record to 13-5 with this: 7+ IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K.

Robinson Cano.  Robbie blasted a homer in the second to give the Yanks an early 1-0 lead.  It was Cano's 11th round-tripper of the season and it was the third straight game Robbie went deep.*  Cano also made a dazzling defensive play in the eighth as he fielded a grounder directly behind second base and calmly flipped the ball across his body to first for the out.  There are times when Cano looks a little lackadaisical in the field, but it's just part of his game.  He sometimes reminds me of former shortstop Tony Fernandez.  Anyway, Cano finished 2 for 3 with a walk, 2 runs scored and an RBI.

Melky Cabrera.  Bobby Abreu got the day off with the (tough?) lefty on the mound Friday night and because of that, Cabrera was inserted into the number two hole.  And how did Melky do?  He did just fine.  In fact, even though Abreu is hitting, I would love it if Torre inserted Melky into the two slot permanently.  The Melk-Man picked up three hits and also hit probably the shortest ground-rule double in the history of baseball when he lined a shot off Royal pitcher Ryan Braun in the sixth.  The ball struck Braun in the foot and somehow careened into the stands over the Yankee dugout for a two-run "double."  See what happens when Cabrera hits number two?  Aw, what's the use?  Torre never listens to me.  Melky finished 3 for 5 with 2 ribbies.

Andy Phillips.  Again, I usually like to limit my "good" to only three, but I want to give Andy some respect.  Phillips made some nice defensive plays on Friday night and also laid down a pretty sacrifice bunt in the fourth that led to two runs.  I know Giambi is on the comeback trail, the Yanks traded for Benemit and Shelley Duncan plays first, but Torre shouldn't take time away from Phillips because of it.  There, I said it.  Phillips finished 2 for 3 with a run scored and is batting .302 on the year.

The Bad:

Hideki Matsui.  Matsui was the only Yankee not to reach base (via a hit or walk) or score a run on Friday night.  Cause for alarm?  Negative.  The guy has been on fire for the whole month of July so he was due for an O-fer night.  Matsui finished 0 for 4 and left 5 runners on base.

The Ugly:

Tabloid journalism.  The talk of the town on Friday was about George Steinbrenner and his failing health.  This isn't really anything new, but a reporter recently gained access (he either sneaked in with or accompanied a friend of Steinbrenner's) to the Yankee owner and writes that George is in "dreadful" shape.  Again, I'm not shocked by this, but it's really an unnecessary story.  Sports reporting has now crossed the line into celebrity journalism.  It seems like everybody wants to see people at their worst.  Sad.

Well, the time has come.  Phil Hughes will make his return to the Yanks on Saturday afternoon.  It will be Hughes' first start since May 1 when he no-hit the Texas Rangers for 6 1/3 innings before leaving with a strained hamstring.  Hughes also missed time nursing a sprained ankle suffered during his rehab stint.  Number 65 will take the mound with a 1-1 record and a 3.38 ERA.  He'll face the newly acquired Kyle Davies who was 4-8 with a 5.76 ERA with the Braves before being traded to the Royals for reliever Octavio Dotel.

Let the Hughes mania begin.

*CORRECTION:  Cano didn't homer in his third straight game on Friday.  It was his third homer in four games.