KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Buddy Bell 's first game as manager of the Kansas City Royals was a rousing success.

Zack Greinke notched his first win of the season to make Bell's debut an enjoyable one as the Royals snapped a six-game losing streak with a 5-3 triumph over the New York Yankees .

Owners of the major league's worst record, the Royals (14-37) named Bell their new manager earlier Tuesday. He replaced Tony Pena , who resigned on May 10.

"I forgot how much you have to pay attention," said Bell, who awoke at four a.m. to catch a plane to Kansas City. "The lack of sleep was worth it. I feel great right now."

Greinke (1-6) yielded three runs and three hits in five innings en route to his first win since September 9. He walked three and struck out two.

"It doesn't go through my mind," Greinke said of ending his winless streak. "The only thing that is tough is losing games for your team. The numbers don't matter."

"He told me he felt better after the second inning," Bell said. "But I felt the best thing to do was to take him out because of his pitch count. He actually threw a couple more than we wanted."

Greinke threw 106 pitches, including 38 in the second inning.

"After that I started pitching instead of just throwing," Greinke said. "(Catcher) John Buck and I clicked today even if I didn't have my best stuff."

Mike Wood and Andrew Sisco bridged the gap to Mike MacDougal , who retired the side in order in the ninth for his third save.

"Pitching and defense really kept us in the game," Bell said. "The guy who really bared down when we needed it was Sisco."

David DeJesus bounced into a forceout to plate Ruben Gotay in the fourth, snapping a 3-3 tie. Terrence Long 's sacrifice fly in the fifth gave the Royals the final margin.

DeJesus also made a pair of good defensive plays, including catching Derek Jeter 's drive at the top of the center field wall on the game's first pitch.

"The balls stayed up for me and I was able to run them down," DeJesus said. "After that catch it got us going a little bit."

Yankees manager Joe Torre served a one-game suspension. Bench coach Joe Girardi managed in Torre's place.

"It looks a lot easier when you're not in the chair," Girardi said. "It gives you a lot of respect for what managers have to do."

A pickoff of Tony Womack helped the Royals escape the seventh inning without allowing a run despite a leadoff single by Robinson Cano and walks to Jeter and Alex Rodriguez .

"You can't get picked off in a situation like that and I'll just leave it at that," Womack said.

"He had a big lead and hadn't seen me before, so that was to my advantage," Wood said. "I went with my best move. Everything went our way tonight."

Hideki Matsui hit a two-run homer in the second, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead. It was his fourth homer of the season and first in 180 at-bats.

Before the game, Matsui took extra batting practice with the help of hitting coach Don Mattingly .

"Hitting off the tee allowed me to work on my swing and my balance and correct some flaws in my swing," Matsui said through an interpreter. "I felt pretty good in practice and was able to carry that into the game."

Yankees starter Kevin Brown (4-5) had his four-game winning streak halted. He gave up five runs and nine hits in seven innings, walking three and striking out seven.

"It was one of those nights," Brown said. "If you can get a ground ball to somebody or a line drive at somebody it makes all the difference in the world."

"We hit some balls hard and didn't get some breaks," Girardi said. "We could have easily had a three-run lead in the first inning. We made a couple of errors, too."