<table> </table> NEW YORK | Oh yeah, the Royals are going to miss this place.</p><p>As farewells go, the Royals pulled out a doozy Sunday afternoon for their final appearance at Yankee Stadium. This 15-6 loss to the New York Yankees was like a collection of outtakes of countless miseries of recent years.</p><p>Crushed hopes. Battered pitching. And just a spice of unintended comedy.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had some bad luck over the years here,&#8221; outfielder David DeJesus said. &#8220;This was one of those games we used to have back in the day. We get a quick lead and, boom, the next thing you know, we&#8217;re already down seven or eight runs.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like, &#8216;What happened?&#8217;&#8194;&#8221;</p><p>The Royals opened the game by stinging 15-game winner Mike Mussina for three runs in the first inning. Today would be different, maybe.</p><p>&#8220;A guy who already has 15 wins,&#8221; Royals starter Brian Bannister said, &#8220;and you get three in the first &#8230; I just couldn&#8217;t get one break today. I missed over the plate and, every time, it hurt me.&#8221;</p><p>The Yankees counterattacked with six runs worth of hurt in their first inning. Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer. Xavier Nady went deep. New York also hit for a team cycle in a span of four batters.</p><p>On to the second inning. John Buck doubled, and Esteban German singled. The Royals had runners at first and third with no outs. Here was a comeback, maybe.</p><p>No.</p><p>DeJesus popped out to short center. Mike Aviles grounded into a double play. Nothing.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s baseball,&#8221; Aviles shrugged. &#8220;It goes up and down, but we haven&#8217;t been on the upside for a little while now. We&#8217;re trying to get some wins. It just hasn&#8217;t been rolling our way.&#8221;</p><p>Second inning (continued). The Yankees loaded the bases with their first three hitters against Bannister with a single and two walks. Jason Giambi then hit a 1-1 fastball over the right-field wall for his 14th career grand slam. (Note: not all against the Royals).</p><p>The Yankees led 10-3.</p><p>No more maybes.</p><p>Mussina, 16-7, settled into a groove and worked five shutout innings after the first before handing the game to the bullpen to start the seventh. He retired the last 14 batters he faced.</p><p>&#8220;After the first inning,&#8221; Aviles said, &#8220;he settled down and just hit his spots. He threw strikes and got us.&#8221;</p><p>Bannister lost his sixth straight decision in falling to 7-12 and hit an astounding new low in his disappointing season. He gave up 10 runs and 10 hits in one-plus innings as his ERA jumped to 5.96.</p><p>&#8220;He wasn&#8217;t locating his pitches early or late,&#8221; Buck said. &#8220;This team, if you don&#8217;t locate &#8212; if you fall behind and make mistakes &#8212; they&#8217;ll do it to you in a hurry.&#8221;</p><p>Bannister retired only three of 16 batters and allowed three home runs, which boosted his season total to a club-leading 22.</p><p>The Yankees finished with 17 hits, including four by Derek Jeter. Nine different players scored runs. Rodriguez had three hits and a season-high five RBIs. Cody Ransom hit a two-run homer in a four-run seventh inning against reliever Jeff Fulchino.</p><p>The Yankees pushed their lead to 15-3 before the Royals scored three late runs against relievers Billy Traber and Chris Britton.</p><p>The comic touch was a Royals&#8217; specialty. It came in the third inning when A-Rod&#8217;s short pop to left fell for an RBI single between Aviles, who twisted his way back from short, and left fielder Mark Teahen.</p><p>The Royals suffered their ninth loss in 11 games despite a 10-hit attack that included a two-run double by Billy Butler in the first inning and a two-run homer by Ross Gload in the ninth.</p><p>The Royals have posted some unsightly numbers at Yankee Stadium, which closes after this season to make way for the new HOK-designed palace across the street.</p><p>The Royals were 12-49 here since the start of the 1995 season while compiling a 6.72 team earned-run average. So there were no &#8220;Auld Lang Synes&#8221; as they dressed in the visitor&#8217;s clubhouse for the final time.</p><p>&#8220;This was not a game you wanted to go through,&#8221; Bannister said, &#8220;especially in this ballpark and being the last game we get to play here. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. I won&#8217;t have good memories of this ballpark.&#8221;