Game 119: Michael Pineda returns

After Tuesday night's game was rained out, the Yankees and Orioles return to the field this evening for the finale of what should have been a three game series this week at Camden Yards -- yesterday's game has been turned into a double header on September 12.

The Yankees lost the first meeting between the two sides on Monday night, taking a 3-1 lead in the 2nd inning before the Orioles came back to score 10 unanswered runs, winning the game 11-3.

The loss put the Yankees seven games behind the Orioles in the AL East. New York can't afford to lose any ground in the standings, and losing to Baltimore isn't helping.

At least Tuesday's rain out meant they didn't have to risk falling another game behind.

Tonight's lineup against Baltimore:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
3B Chase Headley
2B Stephen Drew
RF Martin Prado
C Francisco Cervelli

Pitching matchup preview:

Big Mike is back! Michael Pineda will finally make his long awaited return to a big league mound for the Yankees this evening.

Pineda only made four starts in April before he was caught using pine tar during a game against the Red Sox, leading to a 10-game suspension. He got hurt during that suspension and has been on the disabled list ever since.

Pineda, who had a 1.83 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and 15/3 K/BB ratio over his first 19 2/3 innings (four starts) this season, looked good in a minor league rehab start for Triple-A Scranton on Friday, allowing one run on six hits over 4 1/3 innings of work while striking out seven.

Right-hander Chris Tillman will get the ball for Baltimore tonight, as he looks to keep his his good run of pitching since the All-Star break, having posted a 2.30 ERA since then.

Tillman is coming off of a strong start against the St. Louis Cardinals in his last outing, tossing 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball, giving up just four hits before losing his shutout in the 7th inning.

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Tonight's game against the Orioles has been postponed

Tonight's game against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards has been postponed due to rain, according to multiple reports.

The game will be made up as part of a double-header in Baltimore on September 12.

On the bright side, the Yankees won't have to lose any more ground to the Orioles tonight.

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Yankees 3, Orioles 11: Carlos Beltran stole home and the Yankees still lost

With an opportunity to gain ground on the AL East leading Baltimore Orioles this week, the Yankees missed their first of three chances, as they took an early lead and fell behind late, falling to the Orioles, 11-3, on Monday night at Orioles Park in Camden Yards.

The Yankees and O's traded runs in the 1st inning of the ballgame. Brett Gardner tripled to kick things off against Baltimore start Bud Norris, then scored a couple pitches later on a groundout by Derek Jeter.

The Orioles were quick to counter against the Yankees and starting pitcher Chris Capuano. Manny Machado hit a one-out double, moved to second base on a wild pitch, then scored two batters later in a sac-fly to center by Nelson Cruz, who would come up big for Baltimore later in the game.

After Baltimore came back to tie the game, the Yankees jumped right back into the lead with two runs off of Norris in the 2nd.

The big right-hander walked Carlos Beltran to open the inning, then gave up a single to Chase Headley, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. He struck out Stephen Drew before Beltran stole home -- yeah, Carlos Beltran stole home -- to put the Yankees up 2-1. Headley took second on the play, then moved over to third on the same play when Machado's throw to the plate hit Beltran. Norris, backing up the play, made a bad toss to the play, letting Headley to score.

Yeah, it was a crazy play. You're going to need to look up the video of it on MLB.com.

And with that, those were the only runs the Yankees were able to manage against Norris, who went five innings, giving up three runs on five hits. Jeter doubled off of Norris with one out in the 5th, and that was actually the last hit the Yankees would get in the game.

Baltimore got a run back against Capuano in the 3rd when Adam Jones hit a one-out single to left field, scoring Jonathan Schoop, who singled to open the inning then move to second base on a ground out.

Chris David put the O's up 4-3 in the 5th with a two-run homerun to left off of Capuano, who lasted six innings, giving up four runs on six hits. He struck out seven and didn't walk anybody. Not a bad start from him, considering what the Yankees got him for, but again, it was the offense that failed to pick him up.

Things only got worse from there, as Jones made it a 5-3 game with an RBI double in the 7th, right before Cruz extended the game with a two-run bomb deep into the Baltimore night off of Adam Warren, who has pretty much been getting worse since about May, making it a 7-3 lead.

After the three-run 7th against Warren, the O's opened the game wide open against Chase Whitley in the 8th. Jonathan Schoop, who only hits well against the Yankees -- that's not even a joke, he's hitting .385 with 3 HR and 10 RBI in 8 games, his best average against any club this year -- and hit his third homerun against the Bombers this season, a three-run shot to left off of Whitley, pushing the score to 10-3.

They got one more run off of Whitley before he was finally taken out of the game, getting an RBI single from David Lough for the 11th run.

This was ugly, and the Yankees, after winning six of seven games, have lost three straight and look worse than they have at any point this season.

Now seven games back of the Orioles, the Yankees will continue this series on Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. ET. Shane Greene will start for the Yankees, and Baltimore will counter with Wei-Yin Chen.

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Game 118: Time to gain some ground

The Yankees are in Baltimore tonight for a very big series with the Orioles, who currently hold a six game lead over their New York rivals.

The Yankees, who have lost six of nine games to the O's this season, including two of three in Camden Yards, can not afford to lose any ground this week, meaning they'll need to steal at least two of three games, starting tonight at 7:05 p.m.

New York went into Saturday's game against the Cleveland Indians having won three straight, including taking three of four from the Detroit Tigers earlier in the week, then managed to go the entire weekend scoring only one run -- a solo homerun from Jacoby Ellsbury with two outs in the 9th inning in Sunday -- as they lost the final two games against the Indians.

The Yankees can't afford more games like that this week as they go up against the O's and Tampa Bay Rays down at The Trop this weekend.

Tonight's lineup against Baltimore:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
3B Chase Headley
2B Stephen Drew
RF Martin Prado
C Francisco Cervelli

* The Yankees optioned RHP Bryan Mitchell back to the minors after tossing two scoreless innings in his major league debut on Sunday. Chris Leroux has been called up from Triple-A Scranton to give the Yankees another fresh arm in the bullpen.

Pitching matchup preview:

With the playoff race starting to heat up, the Yankees will send left-hander Chris Capuano to the mound on Monday night for the series opener.

Capuano took home a no-decision in his last start, against the Tigers last week, giving up just one earned run on five hits over 6 2/3 innings. He out-dueled Tigers starter Justin Verlander, surprising everybody with a great outing.

Right-hander Bud Norris will be on the mound to take on the Yankees this evening.

Norris brings in a 2.63 ERA since the All-Star break, having pitched very well over the past few weeks. Norris suffered a loss in his more recent outing, giving up just two runs over 5 1/3 inning -- the Orioles' offense wasn't able to back him up with any runs.

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Pitching news: Michael Pineda to start on Wednesday; Manny Banuelos promoted to Triple-A

In Baltimore today to kick off a big three-game series against the AL East leading Orioles, the Yankees made a big announcement.

Right-hander Michael Pineda will make his return to the big leagues to face the Orioles in the series finale on Wednesday night. I'm assuming that Esmil Rogers will be moved back to the bullpen with Pineda back. A roster move might not happen until Wednesday.

Pineda only made four starts in April before he was caught using pine tar during a game against the Red Sox, leading to a 10-game suspension. He got hurt during that suspension and has been on the disabled list ever since.

Pineda, who had a 1.83 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and 15/3 K/BB ratio over his first 19 2/3 innings (four starts) this season, looked good in a minor league rehab start for Triple-A Scranton on Friday, allowing one run on six hits over 4 1/3 innings of work while striking out seven.

Man Ban promoted to Triple-A

Baseball America's Josh Norris has reported that pitching prospect Manny Banuelos has been promoted to Triple-A Scranton after spending the past couple of months with Double-A Trenton.

After starting the season with High-A Tampa, making five starts, Banuelos was promoted to Trenton in May, where he posted a 4.59 ERA with 44 strikeouts and 19 walks in 49 innings of work. He's been pitching a lot better lately, giving up four earned runs in his last four starts.

Banuelos, who is pitching in his first full season since having Tommy John Surgery in 2012, could possibly make his way up to the big leagues in September when rosters are expended to 40. Some say it's possible, but I can't see it.

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Yankees 1, Orioles 3 (F/5): Rain-shortened loss sends Yanks into the break at .500

Tonight's game against the Baltimore Orioles called off after four and a half inning, meaning that the O's have won the series finale, 3-1, to head into the All-Star break with a five-game lead over the Yankees. Not really the way you want to head into the break if you're the Yankees, but after a two hour rain delay, you'll take anything to make it stop.

Brett Gardner put the Yankees on the board with a solo homerun to lead off the game against Kevin Gausman. The Yankees' offense was pretty quite after that until what would be the end of the game in the 5th, ending with only four hits.

Gausman pitched all five innings for the Orioles, giving up a run on four hits, striking out two without walking a batter.

Chase Whitley, back in the rotation with Masahiro Tanaka on the DL, held the Orioles scoreless before the first three innings before giving up Baltimore's three runs in the 3rd.

Nelson Cruz walked to open the 4th, then Chris Davis went the opposite way to left for his 15th homerun of the season, a solo shot that put the O's on the board and give them a 2-1 lead. JJ Hardy followed with a double; Whitley retired the next two hitters before Johnathan Schoop singled to center to score Hardy, making it a 3-1 game.

David Huff took over from there, replacing Whitley, who was charged with three runs in five hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.Huff retired Nick Markakis to end the 4th, then walked Steve Pearce to open the bottom of the 5th right before the game went into a two-hour rain delay.

With this rain-shortened loss, the Yankees will head into the four-day break at 47-47 -- obviously not what Brian Cashman and company envisioned when they spent nearly half a billion dollars over the offseason, but with the starting rotation all but completely dead, it could be worse. You never want to say that you're happy with your team being at .500, but I'll take it with this Yankees team and the way things are going.

The Home Run Derby is tonight in Minnesota, and the All-Star Game is on Tuesday, Derek Jeter and Dellin Betances will be there -- Tanaka won't be, he decided he'll skip the game. Jeter will be the starting shortstop for the AL, as you know, and I'm sure they'll do something special for him in his final Mid-Summer Classic.

Until then, I'll see you guys throughout the week on the blog, hopefully. The full Yankees squad will be back on Friday when they open up a series against the Cincinnati Reds at Yankee Stadium.

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Game 94: Final game of the first half

It's been an up and down first half of the season for the Yankees to this point, and it comes to a close tonight in Baltimore on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.

The Yankees and Orioles have split the first two games of this series -- the Orioles won in 10 innings on Friday night with a 3-2 victory, then the Yanks came back on Saturday to win 3-0, getting a very strong performance from Shane Greene, who tossed 7 1/3 shutout innings, giving up just four hits while striking out nine.

Entering play just four games back of the AL East leading Orioles, the Yankees (47-45) will look to get back a game on Baltimore, while also going into the break with some momentum that they'll hope to bring with them into the second half of the season.

Tonight's lineup against Baltimore:

CF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
DH Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
C Brian McCann
2B Brian Roberts
RF Ichiro Suzuki
LF Kelly Johnson
3B Yangervis Solarte

* The Yankees have called up right-hander Bryan Mitchell from the minor leagues to give them an extra arm in the bullpen -- I guess they've realized Whitley hasn't been dependable lately. In a corresponding move, Zoilo Almonte was optioned down to Triple-A.

Pitching matchup preview:

Chase Whitley will be on the mound for the Yankees tonight, making his first start since being moved into the bullpen when the Yankees acquired Brandon McCarthy from the Diamondbacks last weekend. Whitley's last start was against the Minnesota Twins, when he gave up four runs on eight hits in just three innings of work.

He was moved to the bullpen a couple days after, making an appearance against the Indians on Wednesday, tossing two scoreless innings.

Over his last three starts, Whitley has allowed 17 earned runs in nine innings. Hopefully get can get back on track and starting pitching just as he was after being called up in May.

Right-hander Kevin Gausman will oppose Whitley and the Yankees tonight after being recalled from Triple-A on Friday to take the spot of Ubaldo Jimenez, who was suppose to start against the Yankees yesterday before he was placed on the DL with an ankle injury.

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Yankees 3, Orioles 0: Shane Greene dominated the Orioles

Shane Greene made his first big league start on Monday against the Cleveland Indians, where he took a no-hitter into the 5th inning. He made his second big league start on Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles, where he also took a no-hitter into the 5th inning. The Yankees' offense, once again, was pretty quite, but scored enough runs to back up Greene, who tossed another great game en route to the second win of his major league career.

After the Yankees stranded runners on first and second base with nobody out to open the 2nd inning, Mark Teixeira put the Bombers on the board in the 3rd inning with an RBI double into the right field corner, scoring Brett Gardner, who reached on a fielder's choice, from second base, with Derek Jeter being gunned down at the plate to end the inning.

That was the only run that Chris Tillman had given up through the first six innings. The Yankees also wasted a good scoring chance in the 6th when Brian Roberts struck out with runners on the corners to end the inning.

Tillman ran into trouble in the 7th, however, and that's when the Yankees where able to pad their lead with a pair of runs.

Kelly Johnson singled to open the inning, moved to second base on a wild pitch from Tillman, then scored on a two-out single by Jeter, who collected a pair of hits for the 1,001st multi-hit game of his career. That knocked Tillman out of the game after 6 2/3 innings; TJ McFarland came on an immediately gave up an RBI double to Jacoby Ellsbury, making it a 3-0 game. Tillman was charged with all three runs on seven hits and three walks, with four strikeouts.

And now to Greene, who was very good in just his second start. He cam out early attacking hitters and throwing strikes to a pretty impatient Orioles lineup. He was really having success with his hard-sinking sinker and a pretty good breaking ball. Like I said, he didn't give up a hit until there were two outs in the 5th, and that hit came from a good piece of hitting by Ryan Flarerty, who reached out to hit a two-strike sinker off the plate, smacking it right back up the middle.

Greene did a great job of working out of trouble in the 6th inning, where he gave up back-to-back singles to Nick Markakis and Steve Pearce to open the inning. The next batter, Adam Jones, though, grounded into a double play, then Nelson Cruz struck out to end the threat.

Greene took the mound to open the 8th inning, retired Steve Clevenger, then Joe Girardi decided to pull the plug on his great day. He struck out nine, giving up just four hits with two walks on 106 pitches in 7 1/3 innings. He and Hiroki Kuroda in back-to-back games has made it look like there's actually some hope for this rotation after all.

David Huff only faced one batter in the 8th -- it was Markakis and he singled -- before Girardi brought in Shawn Kelley, who retired the next two hitters to end the 8th.

Then in the 9th, David Robertson did David Robertson things, striking out the final two batters of the game to seal hsi 23rd save of the season, and a 3-0 win for the Yankees, which brings them back to four games within of the first place Orioles.

The Yankees will finish up the first half of their season tomorrow night on ESPN'S Sunday Night Baseball. Kevin Gausman will be on the mound for the O's, while the Yankees are expected to counter with Chase Whitley.

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Game 93: Jeff Francis activated; Matt Daley optioned to Triple-A

After the Baltimore Orioles took home the victory on Friday night with a walk-off win in 10 inning against the Yankees, these two teams will be back at it again on Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards for the second game of this three-game set.

Brian Roberts made his return to Baltimore last night for the first time as a member of the Yankees after spending the last 13 seasons as an Oriole. Roberts homered on the first pitch he saw, sending a solo homerun over the right field wall.

According to the Yankees' game notes, in Camden Yards' 23-year history (1992-2014), Roberts ranks first in doubles (155), second in hits (703; Markakis-728), runs scored (382; Anderson-440), triples (13; Anderson-15) and walks (286; Anderson-398), and third in games played (660; Anderson-703, Ripken-674).

Today's lineup against Baltimore:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Brian McCann
RF Ichiro Suzuki
2B Brian Roberts
3B Kelly Johnson
C Francisco Cervelli

* The Yankees have added left-handed pitcher Jeff Francis to the active 25-man roster. Francis was acquired by the Yanks on Friday from the Oakland Athletics for a player to be named later. Manager Joe Girardi told reporters on Friday that he'll be a 30-40 pitch guy for the time being. In a corresponding move, Matt Daley was optioned back to Triple-A Scranton after being called up on Friday.

Pitching match up preview:

Shane Greene made his first big league start on Monday against the Cleveland Indians, and things went pretty well, as the young right-hander tossed six-innings of two-run ball, getting him his first big league victory.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Greene became the first pitcher in Yankees franchise history to
earn a win in his first Major League start while recording at least 6.0IP and allowing four-or-fewer hits
without walking a batter -- the last Yankee to do that was Darrel Rasner way back in 2006.

That outing earned Greene another, which will come this afternoon against the O's in the second game of this three-game series.

Heading into Friday, Ubaldo Jimenez was scheduled to start today's game for the Orioles, but an ankle injury landed him on the disabled list before last night's game, meaning that Chris Tillman will now get the ball today to oppose Greene and the Bombers.

Tillman has quality starts in four of his last five games and he pitched well in Washington against the Nationals on Tuesday, allowing two runs on five hits in seven innings.

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Yankees 2, Orioles 3 (F/10): Hiroki Kuroda's strong effort not enough to beat Baltimore

Entering the night just four games back of the AL East leading Baltimore Orioles, Hiroki Kuroda took the mound for the Yankees with a chance to close the gap this weekend as the two teams opened up a three-game series on Friday at Camden Yards. Kuroda pitched a great game, but it wasn't enough for the Yanks to beat the O's, who walked off in the 10th inning for a 3-2 win.

Brian Roberts, who returned home to Baltimore for the first time since signing with the Yankees over the winter, opened the scoring with a solo homerun off of Miguel Gonzalez in the 2nd inning, giving the Bombers a 1-0 lead. An inning later, in the 3rd, Kelly Johnson, the DH for the night, made it a 2-0 game with a solo shot of his own to open the inning.

And that was all she wrote for the Yankees' offense, which had another poor game collecting just seven hits, including those two solo homeruns.

Kuroda had only given up one hit through the first three innings -- a Nick Hundley single with two outs in the 3rd -- and was pitching pretty well until the Orioles scored a pair of runs in the 4th to tie the game.

Kuroda hit Steve Pearce to open the inning, then Adam Jones reached on an infield single hit to Derek Jeter; that set up runners on the corners with nobody out. With Nelson Cruz at the plate, Pearce scored on a wild pitch by Kuroda. Cruz struck out, then with Chris Davis at the plate, Kuroda threw another wild pitch that got Jones to third. He would come in to score on a sac-fly by Davis, making it a 2-2 game.

I missed not of the game, so I didn't get to see how well Kuroda actually pitched, but his numbers suggest that it was a pretty good night. He made it through seven innings, giving up two runs on three hits, without a walk and three strikeouts, throwing 103 pitches.

Gonzalez, for Baltimore, was just as good, pitching eight innings of two-run ball, giving up six hits with five strikeouts on 106 pitches.

Dellin Betances pitched two very strong innings for the Yankees, retiring six of the seven Orioles hitters he faced in the 8th and 9th -- hitting Pearce with a pitch in the 8th -- to help send the game to extra innings.

Adam Warren, who last faced the O's on June 22 in New York when he was tagged for four runs in one inning, opened on the mound for the Yankees in the 10th. Manny Machado led off with a double into the right field corner. Warren struck out Ryan Flaherty for the first out of the inning, but the next batter, Hundley, ended the game with a walk-off single up the middle.

Another tough loss for the Yankees, who fall back to .500 on the season at 46-46. They wasted a good start from Kuroda by not scoring enough runs in a pretty winnable game. We can talk all day about the mangled pitching staff, but the offense hasn't been anything special either.

Shane Greene and Chris Tillman will be on the mound for their teams Saturday afternoon, when the Yankees continue this three-game series at 4:05 pm ET.

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Game 92: Hiroki Kuroda opens for the Yankees in Baltimore

After taking two games from the Cleveland Indians this week, the Yankees are in Baltimore for a three-game series with the Orioles that will take them into the All-Star break for a much needed four-day break as they get ready to run through most, or all of, the the second half of the season without their ace Masahiro Tanaka.

The Yankees will enter this series tonight just four games back of the AL East leading Orioles, so they have a good chance to make up ground this weekend.

As you should have heard by now, Tanaka was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, effectively putting him on the shelve for at least six weeks, with Tommy John surgery still very much possible.

The challenge for the Yankees moving forward will be still trying to compete for a playoff spot in the American League East with now four-fifths of their Opening Day rotation now on the DL. The last standing member of that five is the 39-year-old Hiroki Kuroda, who will now have to be the guy that carries the rotation -- realistically, that probably won't happen.

Brandon McCarthy will have to be a valuable starter along side David Phelps, Chase Whitley and Shane Greene....never mind, we're screwed.

Tonight's lineup against Baltimore:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
C Brian McCann
2B Brian Roberts
RF Ichiro Suzuki
3B Yangervis Solarte
DH Kelly Johnson

Pitching matchup preview:

Getting over Tanaka began last night with Phelps tossing six+ quality innings, but it'll start tonight for Kuroda, how will be on the mound for the Yankees during this series opener at Camden Yards, as he faces the O's for the third time this season.

His first meeting against them was on April 7 at Yankee Stadium, getting the win in that one, then he took home a no-decision in a June 20 start, giving up two runs in six innings.

In his last trip to the mound, Kuroda gave up four runs on seven hits in 5.2 innings, beating the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.

Right-hander Miguel Gonzalez will be on the mound for the Orioles tonight, looking to improve on his 4.22 ERA this season.

Gonzalez is coming off of a pretty good start in which he allowed just two runs -- one earned -- and in a season-high eight innings.

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Yankees 0, Orioles 8: Another weekend game lost by the Bombers

I don't know a whole lot about Baltimore Orioles second baseman Johnathan Schoop, but he accomplished a pretty impressive feat on Sunday, hitting a homerun off of Masahiro Tanaka, becoming the first Major League hitter with more than one dinger against Tanaka, as his homerun helped the O's beat the Yankees, 8-0, in a dumpster fire game on Old Timer's Day at Yankee Stadium.

With the loss, the Yankees have dropped seven straight weekend games, while at the same time, they have won their last 10 weekday games. Weird, if you ask me.

The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning when Schoop hit his 6th homerun of the year into the left field seats off of Tanaka.

Tanaka settled in and held the Orioles to just that one run as they entered the 7th inning, where the Orioles put their first two batters one base against Tanaka, then Schoop grounded out to score a run, making it a 2-0 game. A batter later, Caleb Joseph hit a sac-fly that scored the third run off of Tanaka.

Tanaka wasn't on his best game today, but it didn't really matter but the Yankees hardly made an attempt to give him any run support. He lasted seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

The Orioles broke the game wide open in the 8th inning against Adam Warren. Steve Pearce and Adam Jones both singled to open the frame, then Nelson Cruz hit a groundball to Kelly Johnson at third base. Johnson stepped on third for the force out there, but as Pearce slid into third, he slid far off of the bag and into Johnson, as his throw to first sailed into the first base seats. No interference was called, stupidly, leaving runners on second and third with one out.

Joe Girardi then decided to walk Chris Davis to load the bases, but that didn't work out, as a batter later, JJ Hardy hit a bases-clearing double, making it a 6-0 game. Manny Machado followed with an RBI single, scoring Hardy to push the lead to 7-0.

David Huff took over on the mound in the 9th, and Joseph took him deep for a solo homerun.

Chris Tillman looked like a Cy Young winner on the mound today, as the Yankees hardly put anything together against him. Brett Gardner opened the bottom of the 1st with a triple, but replay showed he came off of the bag for a split second, leading to him being called out. Other than that, nothing.

Tillman worked seven very strong innings, holding the Yankees to just four hits, with four walks and two strikeouts on 114 pitches. TJ McFarland pitched the final two innings without giving up a hit or walking anybody.

The Yankees will head off to Toronto tonight to open a three-game series with the Blue Jays tomorrow night. Chase Whitley and Marcus Stroman will be the starting pitchers in that one.

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Game 74: Old Timer's Day, featuring Masahiro Tanaka

It's Old Timer's Day at Yankee Stadium today, and even more important, it's Masahiro Tanaka Day at Yankee Stadium, too.

Tanaka will go for his 12th win of the season today as the Yankees will also be trying to take the third and final game of this weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees won the opener on Friday night thanks to a three-home walk-off belted into the seats by Carlos Beltran, but couldn't carry that magic into Saturday's game, as the O's used four homeruns to defeat the Yankees, 6-1.

The Yankees are 12-2 so far this season in games started by Tanaka, who currently lead the league with 11 wins and a 1.99 ERA. He's the clear favorite right now to win not only the AL Rookie of the Year award, but the Cy Young award as well.

Today's lineup against Baltimore:

LF Brett Gardner

SS Derek Jeter

CF Jacoby Ellsbury

1B Mark Teixeira

C Brian McCann

DH Carlos Beltran

3B Kelly Johnson

2B Yangervis Solarte

RF Ichiro Suzuki

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Yankees 1, Orioles 6: Too many damn dingers

Possibly pitching with his rotation spot on the line, Vidal Nuno didn't pitch well enough to keep it, as the Baltimore Orioles tagged him for five runs in 6.2 innings, as the O's rebounded from Carlos Beltran's wall-off homerun last night to beat the Yankees, 6-1, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium thanks to a quartet of homeruns.

The Yankees honored former first baseman Tino Martinez before the game, but didn't make the actual game any more special. The O's took an early lead and never looked back, eventually extending that lead on a couple of homeruns by Nelson Cruz and Steve Pearce later in the game.

Adam Jones put Baltimore on the board with a 1st inning homerun off of Nuno, taking him deep ot left field as the third batter of the game, making it 1-0. Jones later walked to open the 4th inning, then Cruz followed with a two-run shot that extended the Orioles' lead to 3-0. That was Cruz's 23rd homerun of the year -- what a bargain for Baltimore, right?

Mark Teixeira was the only Yankee of the day to drive in a run against Bud Norris, who was setting down the Yankees' lineup rather easily, with just two walks and a single through three innings. It was Teixeira's team-leading 12th homerun of the season that cut the lead to 3-1.

Norris gave up a Brian Roberts double in the 5th, the only other hit against him after the Teixeira homerun. He was only able to make it through five innings, though, having to leave the game with a groin injury after throwing just a couple of warm-up pitches prior to the bottom of the 6th. He only gave up a run on three hits, with two walks and four strikeouts in five frames.

Pearce pushed Baltimore's lead up to four in the 5th inning with another two-run homerun off of Nuno, making it a 5-1 game.

Nuno somehow made it into the 7th inning -- I'm guessing that Joe Girardi was trying to get as much as he could out of Nuno without going to the bullpen. He left after retiring Nick Markakis with his 107th pitch of the day. He was hit for the three homeruns, four earned runs of the five, with six hits, two walks and four strikeouts. It'll be interesting to see if he gets another start.

Jose Ramirez took over with an out in the 7th, finished off the inning, gave up a homerun to JJ Hardy in the 8th -- Hardy's first homerun of the season -- that put the Orioles by five runs, then worked around a couple of singles by Pearce and Jones in the 9th.

Looking to rally in the 9th for the second straight day, Tommy Hunter retired the first two hitters before Ichiro Suzuki singled and took second on defensive-indifference, but Brian McCann flew out to end the game.

The Yankees and Orioles will both look to take the rubber-match of this three-game series tomorrow afternoon, with Masahiro Tanaka and Chris Tillman on the mound for their respective teams. Tanaka Sunday, y'all!

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Yankees 5, Orioles 3: Carlos Beltran belts a walk-off

Carlos Beltran hasn't been a Yankee for very long, but he already has his signature moment, and it came in the bottom of the 9th inning on Friday night when he launched a three-run homerun into the left field seats, sending the Yankees home with a 5-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles in the series opener of a three-game set at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees wasted several scoring opportunities throughout the game, leaving the bases loaded in the 2nd, 5th and 6th innings, but still managed to pull of the victory after falling behind in the 6th.

Mark Teixeira put the Yankees up 1-0 in the bottom of the 1st inning with an RBI single to right field to score Jacoby Ellsbury, who reached on an infield single then stole second base. Teixeira is only batting .250 this season, but's still leading the team with 35 RBIs, and is also doing damage with the long ball, leading the team in homeruns as well.

The Yankees threatened again in the 2nd against Jimenez. Carlos Beltran opened the inning with his second double in as many night, and after Ichiro Suzuki struck out, Brian Roberts singled and stole second base ahead of Yangervis Solarte, who walked to load the bases with just one out. The next batter was Brett Gardner, one of the Yankees' hottest hitters, and he flew out to center field. Beltran tried to tag and score from third base, but his limited speed wasn't enough to beat Adam Jones' throw to the plate for an inning-ending double play.

Another big opportunity presented itself to the Yankees in the 5th when Jimenez walked Gardner, Derek Jeter and Ellsbury back-to-back-to-back with two outs to load the bases. But Teixeira followed up by grounding out to first base to end the inning.

Kuroda took a no-hitter into the 6th inning against an always dangerous Orioles lineup. However, Nick Hundley broke of the threat with a double to open the inning, and that's when things went south quickly for Kuroda and the Yankees.

Kuroda got Nick Markakis to fly out for the first out, but then Steve Pearce double to scoring the tying run, even the game at 1-1 and ending the shutout, and Jones followed with a single to drive in Pearce, giving Baltimore a 2-1 lead. In just a span of four batters, Kuroda when from throwing a no-hitter, to trailing in the game, and you just knew that the first two bases loaded failures would come back to bite the Yankees.

So how would the Yankees respond to the O's taking a one-run lead? Well, they loaded the bases again in the bottom half of the 6th. McCann and Beltran got on with a single and a walk, then Ichiro popped out on a bunt, and Roberts fouled out down the first base die in foul territory. Solarte drew his second walk to load the bases, but Gardner, with another opportunity, flew out to end the inning.

Jimenez was knocked out of the game after walking three straight. He tossed 104 pitches in 5.2 innings, but only gave up one run in six hits while walking six and striking out three.

A high pitch count (107) knocked Kuroda out of the game after six innings. He was already at 82 after five innings, so even if he had kept the no-no going, he wouldn't have lasted very long. He was charged, in the end, with two runs on four hits, while walking one and striking out six. A quality outing, but he still took home his 6th loss of the season.

Just for the heck of it, the Yankees put together another one of their "rallies" together in the 8th, when Alfonso Soriano came off of the bench for the pinch-hit, two-out single, then Roberts followed with another single to put two on with two outs for Solarte, who hasn't collected a hit since June 8. As you would expect. he flew out to end the inning, continuing his very long drought -- an 0-for-25 stretch.

Shawn Kelley tossed a scoreless 7th inning, then Kelly, Matt Thornton and Dellin Betances, who only faced one batter, combined for a scoreless 8th inning. David Huff took over in the 9th and the O's tagged him for one more insurance run when Pearce singled him Johnathan Schoop, who reached on a Solarte error, making it a 3-1 game.

The Yankees put together one last rally attempt in the final inning when Gardner opened the 9th inning with a single against Zach Britton and Teixeira drew a two-out walk. McCann followed up with a single to center field, scoring Gardner to put the Yankees within a run, then Beltran sent everybody home with one swing of the bat, hitting a three-run walk-off homerun, the Yankees' first walk-off hit of the season.

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Game 72: Yankees welcome the Orioles to town

Coming off of a three-game sweep of the AL East leading Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees will look to do the same thing to the Baltimore Orioles, who are making their second stop in the Bronx this season after taking two of three games down in St. Petersburg against the Tampa Bay Ray earlier in the week.

The Yankees, 7-2 in their last nine games and 9-4 in their last 13, coming off their fourth series sweep of the season, enter play just a game and a half being Toronto, while Baltimore stands 2 1/5 games back, having won six of their past 10 games.

With the Blue Jays struggling lately, and now heading off to Cincinnati for three-games against the Reds, this could be a big series for both the Yankees and Orioles in terms of trying to gain control of such a fragile AL East right now.

Tonight's lineup against Baltimore:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
C Brian McCann
DH Carlos Beltran
RF Ichiro Suzuki
2B Brian Roberts
3B Yangervis Solarte

Pitching matchup preview:

Hiroki Kuroda will get the ball for the Yankees tonight in this series opener, coming off of a very short outing against the Oakland Athletics last week, giving up four runs in 4 2/3 innings after a 38-minute lighting delay when a set of lights in the o.Co Coliseum failed to turn on.

The Yankees re-signed Kuroda over the offseason with hopes that he would be able to lead the rotation one more time after getting off to a great start in 2014, but he hasn't lived up to the expectations this season, sporting a 4-5 record and 4.32 ERA coming into his start tonight, which is his second against the O's this season.

Baltimore will counter with right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, allowed two earned runs over six innings in his last outing against Toronto. Jimenez does not have very good numbers in his career against the Yankees, coming into tonight's game with a 1-4 record and 6.67 ERA in five career starts against the Bombers.

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Spring Training Game 19: Yankees at Orioles

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

While most of the big names prepared for a match against the Miami Marlins tonight in Panama, the Yankees have sent a bunch of minor leaguers to take care of business in Sarasota today as the face the Baltimore Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium.

Vidal Nuno will make his first start in a while. He came into the spring as a far outside shot to win the Yankees' fifth starter job, and even though he pitched well in his first two starts of the spring, it seems as if he is already out of the race with about two weeks left in Florida.

Nuno's last start was against the Toronto Blue Jays back on March 2nd, and he pitched pretty well, tossing two innings of one-run ball, giving up two hits while striking out three. His only blemish of the day was a solo homerun off the bat of Jose Bautista in the 1st inning.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after the game that it's possible Nuno could be placed in the bullpen to start the season if he doesn't win the fifth starter job.

“I think you have to consider him, too,” Girardi said. “I think you have to. He’s left-handed. He can give you some innings. He can get left-handers and right-handers out. I think you have to look at it.”

Today's lineup against Baltimore:

Today's lineup vs. BAL: Suzuki RF, Roberts 2B, Johnson 3B, Romine C, Flores LF, Williams CF, Roller DH, Angelini SS, Arcia 1B, Nuno P.
— Gavin Ewbank (@GavinEwbank) March 15, 2014

Only a few unknown names in the starting lineup, but it gets worse with the second string players listed below. Eduardo Nunez will cleated in the leg during yesterday's game, but he wasn't scheduled to play today anyway, so that is not why he isn't playing today. Russ Canzler was suppose to travel with the team today, but stiffness in his neck that came up the other day have kept him out.

Today’s second string: C Pete O’Brien, 1B Zach Wilson, 2B Rob Refsnyder, SS Cito Culver, 3B Rob Segedin, LF Ben Gamel, CF Jake Cave, RF Taylor Dugas.

Today’s scheduled relievers: Brian Gordon, Mark Montgomery, Danny Burawa, Diego Moreno and Joel De La Cruz (Shane Greene, Manny Barreda, Graham Stoneburner, Branden Pinder and Charlie Short are also making the trip).

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