Pettitte pitches past the Royals.

He lost some of his touch recently but Andy Pettitte rebounded Saturday in Kansas City by tossing 7 very effective innings of two run ball, backed by a Vernon Wells home run and some shut down pitching from the bullpen to take care of business against the Royals.

Facing a well known foe in James Shields, the Yankees jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 3rd inning when a throwing error on a ground ball from Robinson Cano, thrown by Mike Moustakas allowed Jayson Nix to score with two outs in the inning.

Shields didn't pitch to the best of his ability like we've seen lately but still only gave up 2 earned runs over 8 innings pitched, surrendering 6 hits, while walking 2 and striking out 5. The only big mistake of his was the Wells home run in the 4th.

"Typical James Shields, changing speeds," Wells said. "He had a good fastball, too, that made his off-speed stuff be even more effective. Luckily, he fell behind me and had to throw fastballs, but he's as good as they come. He's 'Big Game James' for a reason."

An RBI ground out in the 4th inning tied the game at 1-1. Then Billy Butler took Pettitte deep to center field in the 4th inning, to pull the Royals ahead of the Yankees, 2-1.

The Yankees weren't trailing for long after Vernon Well knocked a 3-1 pitch from Shields over the wall in left field. Wells' 8th home run of the year was a two-run blast the put to Yankees back on top, 3-2. That would be all the run support that Pettitte would need.

Keeping the Royals quiet over 7 innings, Pettitte struck out 7, while walking only 1, and surrendering 2 runs on 5 hits. The win snapped Pettitte's three start winless streak.

"I threw a lot of good cutters in the last few games, it's just that I made a lot of mistakes with it," Pettitte said. "I feel like I actually blew it way out of proportion, to tell you the truth. I had good angle on the ball today and I was glad I was able to give us a good start."

Pettitte's only walk of the night was to Lorenzo Cain in the 5th, when Cain walked on only three ball and seemed that only Pettitte and Cain knew what was going on.

"To tell you the truth, I'm just glad," Pettitte said. "Both instances while I was standing out there on the mound, I thought I was losing my mind because I didn't hear anyone else yelling for me."

David Robertson continued to ride the hot hand out of the Yankees bullpen, striking out he side in the 8th. Mariano Rivera followed up with a save in dramatic fashion. A two-out double by Salvador Perez, followed by a deep fly ball chased down by Wells in the ally to end the game.

"I had a feeling," Wells said. "Sometimes you're in the outfield and reading things that go on, and he took some good swings. I knew that the only place he'd most likely be hitting that ball was in the gap. I kind of shaded that way a little bit. I was in the right place."

The save was Rivera's 14th on the season, as well as the 70th time that he's saved a win for Andy Pettitte.

"We're letting Mo get into the game in each city that we go to. So far, so good," Wells said.

The Yankees and Royals will finish up the series on Sunday with Hiroki Kuroda facing Ervin Santana at 2:10 ET from Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

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