Yankees 5, Red Sox 1: Brian McCann's big night at the plate leads Yankees to win over Boston

The Yankees bounced back from a sluggish series opener on Tuesday night to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 5-1, on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Brian McCann had a big night at the plate that helped the Yankees snap a three-game losing streak, with four hits, including a two-run homerun in the bottom of the 2nd inning that put the Yankees up 2-0, and three RBIs on the night to lead the Bombers to victory.

On the mound, Hiroki Kuroda was dealing for the Yankees. He went seven strong innings, giving up just one run -- a Brock Holt double in the 6th inning that scored Jemile Weeks, who was hit by a pitch a batter earlier, to put the Red Sox on the board, making it a 3-1 game -- on four hits, while striking out eight and walking none in seven innings of work.

The Yankees added to their 2-0 against Boston's rookie starter Anthony Ranaudo in the 5th inning on a bases loaded sac-fly by Jacoby Ellsbury that scored Chase Headley from third base.

Ranaudo suffered his first loss at the big league level, giving up three runs on six hits in 5.1 innings. He walked two and struck out just one batter.

Brett Gardner made it a 4-1 game in the bottom of the 7th inning with an RBI single off of Sox reliever Alex Wilson, scoring Ellsbury. Three batters later, McCann extended the lead to 5-1 with an RBI single of his own -- it was his fourth hit of the night, as well.

Both Dellin Betances and David Robertson struck out a pair of hitters in scoreless innings to close out the ballgame.

The Yankees and Red Sox close out this three-game series on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. ET. Chris Capuano and Brandon Workman will be the starting pitchers in that one.

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Game 137: Martin Prado out with "mild, mild hamstring strain"

With their playoff hopes quickly fading away, the Yankees will continue their three-game series with the Boston Red Sox this evening at Yankee Stadium. Boston took the series opener last night, 9-4, on the back of three homeruns against Yankees pitching.

With just a few weeks left to play, the Yankees are 9 1/2 games out of the AL East race, and five games back of the second wild card spot. Time is running out -- and fast.

Tonight's lineup against Boston:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
SS Derek Jeter
LF Brett Gardner
DH Carlos Beltran
1B Mark Teixeira
C Brian McCann
3B Chase Headley
2B Stephen Drew
RF Ichiro Suzuki

* Martin Prado is sitting out with a "mild, mild hamstring strain," according to Joe Girardi. It's possible that he could play tomorrow, but I wouldn't count on it.

Pitching matchup: Hiroki Kuroda vs Anthony Ranaudo

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Yankees 5, White Sox 3: Yankees' offense 'explodes' for fives runs against Chicago

Fresh off of his walk-off antics on Friday night, Yankees infielder Martin Prado was back it again on Saturday, collecting three hits, including a two-run double to put his team ahead, as the Bombers would go on the beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3, on Joe Torre Day at Yankee Stadium.

After a pregame ceremony to honor the former Yankees manager, Torre, which included the retiring of his No. 6 uniform, Hiroki Kuroda took the mound for the Yankees and gave up an early 2nd inning run that put the White Sox on the board.

Connor Gillespie opened the top of the 2nd with a double into right field off of Kuroda. Alexi Ramirez brought him home a batter later with a double of his own.

The Yankees answered back in the bottom half of the inning with tying against Chicago starter Scott Carroll -- well, mainly against Chicago's defense. Carroll walked Mark Teixeira to open the inning, then Carlos Beltran reached on a fielder's choice, with everybody safe. A batter later, Prado dropped down a sacrifice bunt; Jose Abreu ran up to get the ball, but his throw to the bag was off target, lead everybody to be safe with nobody out.

Immediately after that, Chase Headley grounded into a double play that scored Teixeira from third base to even the score at 1-1.

The Yankees' offense struck again two innings later, putting pair of runs on the board to go up 3-1. Brian McCann doubled to kick off the inning, then Teixeira walked to put two on with nobody out. Teixeira, though, ran himself off of the bases on a single to right by Beltran -- McCann was held up at third, but because Teixeira didn't see that, he, too, ran to third, and was eventually tagged out. Beltran would also take second on the play.

A batter later, Prado ripped a two-run double into the left field corner, bringing home both runners to give the Yankees a two-run advantage, and finally some run support for Kuroda, who put together a quality start.

Kuroda escaped danger in the first inning, stranding a pair of runners, then struck out the side in the 2nd inning after giving up the back-to-back doubles to open the inning. The only other run he gave up in six innings of work was on an RBI single by Abreu that score Alejandro De Aza, who walked and later took second base on a wild pitch.

Kuroda only gave up two runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out six on 101 pitches. He picked up his 9th win of the season.

After Kuroda had shut down the side in the 6th, the Yankees' offense went back to work in the bottom half of the inning two add on to it's lead. Beltran led off the inning with a solo homerun that just barley sneaked over the right field wall for his 15th homerun of season, in his first game since Tuesday night. Prado lobbed a double into right field a batter later, moved to third on a ground out by Headley, then scored on a sac-fly by Stephen Drew, giving the Yankees their fifth run in a game for the first time since August 8.

Shawn Kelley opened the 7th inning by giving up hits to two of the first three hitters, followed by an RBI groundout that scored Jordan Danks to pull the White Sox to within two runs. Kelley got one more out before Dellin Betances was brought on to get the final out of the 7th inning on four pitches.

Adam Warren proceeded to toss a three up, three down 8th inning before handing the ball off to David Robertson, who worked around a Paul Konerko walk to record his 22nd consecutive save -- longest streak in the majors -- and 34th of the season to close out the Yankees' third straight victory.

The Yankees and White Sox will wrap up this three-game series on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Chris Capuano will be on the mound for New York as they go for the sweep, but will have to face the dominant lefty Chris Sale at 1:05 p.m. ET.

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Game 127: Yankees retire Joe Torre's No. 6

The Yankees enter Saturday afternoon's matchup with the Chicago White Sox on a two-game winning streak after Martin Prado's walk-off single in the 9th inning last night that gave the Bombers a 4-3 win the opener of this three-game series.

With Baltimore's loss last night, the Yankees were able to gain a game on the Orioles and now sit eight games back in the AL East heading into today. Over in the Wild Card race, Seattle's win over Boston last night kept the Yankees 4.5 games back of the second wild card spot.

It's a special day in the Bronx, as the Yankees will finally be honoring former manager Joe Torre during a pre-game ceremony that will include the retiring of his No. 6 jersey, which would leave Derek Jeter's No. 2 -- for now, at least -- as the only remaining single-digit number to not be retired by the Yankees.

Today's lineup against Chicago:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
LF Brett Gardner
C Brian McCann
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
2B Martin Prado
3B Chase Headley
SS Stephen Drew
RF Ichiro Suzuki

Pitching matchup preview: Hiroki Kuroda vs Scott Carroll

Hiroki Kuroda will get the ball for the Yankees this afternoon, as he looks to continue the trend of quality pitching by Yankees starters lately. Kuroda is coming off of his best start of the month, when he allowed just two runs over 6 2/3 innings against the Rays.

The White Sox will send right-hander Scott Carroll to the mound today in the second game of this three-game set. Carroll is coming off of a rough start against the Toronto Blue Jays, in which he allowed five runs on eight hits, while walking three.

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Yankees 1, Indians 4: Yankees' offense a no-show once again in loss to Cleveland

With the Yankees coming off of a 3-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Saturday, Sunday gave you the feeling that you were almost watching the same game, as the Yankees were trailing 4-0 heading into the 9th inning, with just four hits to their credit.

Thanks to a two-out homerun in the 9th by Jacoby Ellsbury -- which was his 10th of the season, reaching that feat for the second time in his career -- the Yankees avoided being shutout in back-to-back for the first time since 1999, but they still fell to the Indians, 4-1, on Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.

Hiroki Kuroda's stuff wasn't at it's best, and he had to battle all day long. Cleveland scored a run in the opening frame of the game to go up 1-0. Jason Kipnis singled and moved to second base on a wild pitch an out later. Then Michael Brantley singled to left to score Kipnis.

Kuroda retired the side in the second inning, then opened the 3rd inning by giving up another leadoff hit to Kipnis, this time a double to right field. Kipnis moved to third base on a sac-fly, then scored on another sac-fly by Brantley, who picked up his second RBI of the day to make it a 2-0 game.

Kuroda roughest inning was his last one, in the 5th. He hit Ryan Raburn to kick things off, then gave up a one-out single two batters to Jose Ramirez. Kuroda walked Carlos Santana to lead the bases with still just one-out ahead of Yan Gomes, who walked to force in a run, pushing the lead to 3-0.

That was the end of Kuroda's day, as Joe Girardi brought in David Huff out of the bullpen to get the final out of the inning, which he didn't by getting Lonnie Chisenhall to ground out.

Like I said, Kuroda's stuff wasn't that great. He had to throw a lot of pitches, walking four people -- he threw 97 pitches in 4.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits. Even more, the Yankees' offense did nothing to back him up.

Huff worked a three up, three down 6th inning before putting on two of the first three batters in the 7th inning. He handed the ball off to Shawn Kelley, who struck out Santana, then gave up an RBI single to Gomes, giving him his second RBI of the game to extend the lead 4-0.

Prior to Jacoby Ellsbury's solo homerun off of Cody Allen with two outs in the 9th inning that gave the Yankees their first run in almost 20 innings, making it a 4-1 game, pitching prospect Bryan Mitchell, called up on Friday, took the mound in the 8th to make his major league debut.

Mitchell walked the first batter he faced, Zach Walters, before retiring the next three hitters in order, including a strikeout of Kipnis for his first major league punch out. Mitchell went back out to the mound in the 9th, tossing a 1-2-3 inning.

Next up for the Bombers, they'll hit the road for six games this week, starting in Baltimore, where they will play a big three-game series against the Orioles with a chance to gain some ground in the AL East leaders. First pitch for Monday's contest is set for 7:05 p.m. ET, with Chris Capuano on the hill for the Yankees, taking on right-hander Bud Norris.

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Game 117: Finishing up the homestand

After splitting the first two games on Friday and Saturday, the Yankees and Indians will finish up their three-game series at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. This'll be the final game of a six-game homestand for the Yankees, who will head down to Baltimore for three big games against the Orioles this week.

The Yankees are coming off of another one of those losses where the offense doesn't show up, and leaves the starting pitcher with a loss, even after a good outing. In this case, it was Brandon McCarthy having a good day, but not good enough to overcome 15 strikeouts from the Bombers' lineup.

And with that, here is the lineup that hopefully doesn't strike out 15 times today.

Today's lineup against Cleveland:

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

Pitching matchup preview:

Hiroki Kuroda will be on the mound for the Yankees this afternoon, making his fourth career start against the Indians -- he's 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA in his first three outings against Cleveland.

Kuroda is coming off of a good outing this past week, holding the Tigers to three runs in six innings of work. He went home with a no-decision as the Yankees ended up losing the game, 4-3, in extra innings.

Carlos Carrasco will be betting the ball for the Indians today, making his first start since April this season when he was relegated to the bullpen after going 0-3 with a 6.95 ERA in four starts. Since that move, he's a 2.30 ERA, with 39 strikeouts and nine walks through 43 innings out of the bullpen this season.

He pitched well enough to earn this start today against the Yankees.

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Yankees 3, Tigers 4 (F/12): Yankees waste good effort by Hiroki Kuroda, losing in extra innings

Facing a former Cy Young winner for the second straight night, the Yankees held a 3-1 lead for most of the night before the Detroit Tigers came back to tie the game in the 7th, as they would go on to beat the Yankees, 4-3, on the power of an Alex Avila homerun in the 12th inning on Tuesday night in the Bronx.

Hiroki Kuroda's night did not get off to the best of starts, giving up hits to two of the first three batters of the game to set up runners on the corners with no out for Victor Martinez, who put the Tigers up 1-0 just four batters in with a sac-fly left.

Miguel Cabrera had the second hit off of Kuroda in that first inning, but after that, the Yankees' ace-by-default was on top of his game, retiring 14 in-a-row before Andrew Romine, the brother of Yankees catcher Austin Romine, opened the 5th inning with a solo homerun.

The Yankees scored three straight runs off of Tigers starter David Price, who was making his debut for Detroit, after falling behind 1-0 in the 1st inning.

Brian McCann tied the game in the 2nd inning with a solo homerun off of Price, his 12th homerun of the season -- third against Price this year. The Yankees added another run an inning later after Brendan Ryan opened with a double into the right-center field gap. Brett Gardner moved him over with a sac-bunt a batter later, then after a Derek Jeter groundout, Jacoby Ellsbury slapped a double down the left field line to score Ryan, putting the Yankees ahead 2-1.

New York added their third and final run of the game two innings later, in the 5th, when Martin Prado connected for his first homerun as a Yankee, sending a ball into the left field seats against Price, extending the Bombers' lead to 3-1.

After Romine's homerun in that made it a 3-2 game, the Tigers were able to tie the game against Kuroda in the 7th. Martinez reached on an infield single to kick things off, then moved to second base a couple batters later on a two-out single by Nick Castellanos. Avila followed with an RBI single into right that scored the tying run.

Kuroda was done after seven innings; he gave up three runs on six hits, striking out five without walking anybody on 91 pitches (58 strikes).

From there, Joe Girardi just started burning through his bullpen. Dellin Betances struck out two in a scoreless 8th inning, including Cabrera on a 100 mph fastball to end the inning -- it was also Betances' 100th strikeout of the season. Betances got the first out of the 9th before hitting Torii Hunter with a pitch, causing Girardi to again to to the bullpen.

Girardi brought in Shawn Kelley, who, after a past ball got by McCann, moving Hunter's pinch-runner to second base, got two big groundball outs to end the inning.

Carlos Beltran put the Yankees in business to win the game in the 9th inning, opening up with a single against Price, who was still in the game. But the lefty ace battled back to retire the next to hitters before Tigers manager Brad Asmus made the call to bring in the former Yankee, Joba Chamberlain, to get the final out of the 9th, which he did -- full beard and all -- striking out Prado, with a big fist pump following shortly after.

Price, overall, dominated. He struck out 10 while giving up just three runs on eight hits without walking a batter, throwing 112 pitches.

David Huff got the first two outs of the 10th inning for Girardi before he went to Esmil Rodgers to get the next three outs, taking him to two outs in the 11th, where he brought in Rich Hill for his Yankees debut after being called up on Tuesday. That didn't last long, he let Martinez steal second then he hit the only batter he faced with a pitch, ending his night after just four pitches.

Girardi then went to Matt Daley, who recorded the final out of the 11th inning before eventually giving up the go-ahead homerun to Avila in the 12th.

The Yankees didn't really have any chances to win the game in extra-innings. Joba hit Jeter with a pitch with two outs in the 10th, but that turned into nothing. The most exciting thing -- which was really nothing in the end -- was Chase Headley coming within just a few feet of hitting a game-tying homerun off of Joe Nathan in the 12th.

The Yankees will see yet another former Cy Young will on Wednesday night when they face Justin Verlander at 7:05 p.m. ET. Left-hander Chris Capuano will be on the hill for the Yankees.

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Game 112: David Price's Tigers debut

The Yankees will look to extend their winning streak to four games tonight with the second of four games against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium this week.

New York took the first game of this series on Monday night with a close 2-1 victory over reigning Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer, who suffered just his 4th loss of the season after giving up two runs in the 3rd inning -- the only runs he gave up in seven innings of work.

Back by the Yankees' strong bullpen, Brandon McCarthy picked up his 4th win in pinstripes. The ballgame was closed out by David Robertson, who pitched for the third straight night to earn his 30th save of the season. Robertson has been everything that the Yankees could ask for this season replacing Mariano Rivera. Brian Cashman really needs to give him his contract extension already before he becomes a free-agent this winter.

Speaking of D-Rob, it's pretty safe to say that he won't be available tonight after pitching three consecutive days. Joe Girardi hinted to reporters that it might be Dellin Betances pitching in the 9th inning tonight.

Tonight's lineup vs Detroit:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
C Brian McCann
3B Chase Headley
RF Martin Prado
2B Brendan Ryan

Pitching matchup preview:

Yankees 'ace' Hiroki Kuroda gets the ball tonight. He's coming off of a loss in his last outing against the Texas Rangers last week despite pitching well. Kuroda went seven innings, allowing three runs on nine hits while throwing a season-high 115 pitches.

Kuroda has only given up more than four runs in a start one this season, and will probably need to be on top of his game again tonight going up against the Tigers' new All-Star starter.

Yes, David Price will be making his Tigers debut tonight after being traded to Detroit last week. The lefty, who was 11-8 with a 3.11 ERA this season for Tampa Bay before the trade, has seen a lot of the Yankees in his career pitching for the Rays.

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Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4: Ichiro's 1st homerun of the year gives Yanks 17th straight home win over Toronto

The Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays met up in the Bronx on Friday night for the opener of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium. Both teams were playing well coming into the game, but it was the Yankees, after falling behind early, that battled back to beat the Jays, 6-4, to improve to 7-1 since the All-Star break.

Jose Bautista did all of the heavy lifting for the Blue Jays, driving in all four of their runs on a pair of homeruns. The first, in the 1st, put the Jays up 3-0. Jose Reyes lead off the game with a bloop single into center field, then two batters later, Melky Cabrera singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Then Hiroki Kuroda hung a pitch to Bautista, and he made him pay by sending it far into the left field seats; not a cheap shot, as they'd say.

Facing left-hander Mark Buehrle, who hadn't won since June 1 and has also never been successful against the Bombers in his career, the Yankees closed the gap by putting up a pair of runs in the bottom half of the 2nd.

Brian McCann and Chase Headley opened the inning with back-to-back singles, then Buehrle walked Ichiro Suzuki to load the bases with nobody out. Brian Roberts put the Yanks on the board by beating out an infield single, scoring McCann. After Francisco Cervelli, who collected a pair of hits in the game, struck out, Brett Gardner made it a one-run game with a sac-fly into the right-center field gap.

The Blue Jays, or should I say Bautista, was quick to respond in the top of the 4th inning, hitting a solo blast off of Kuroda -- his 20th of the season -- to extend Toronto's lead to 4-2.

The 28-pitch 1st inning really hurt Kuroda, forcing Joe Girardi to pull him from the game with two outs in the 6th. Other than David Phelps' five inning complete-game on Wednesday, I believe that Kuroda is the first Yankee starter to go less than six innings since the All-Star break. He ended up with 94 pitches, giving up the four Bautista RBIs on eight hits, while walking one and striking out three.

The Yankees took a 6-4 lead in the 3rd inning with a four-run frame against Buehrle. Carlos Beltran hit a one-out solo homerun, his 11th of the year, into the left field seats to make it a 4-3 game. McCann and Headley followed with back-to-back singles, then Ichiro pulled off the biggest plot twist of the night, hitting his first homerun of the season, a three-run shot that put the Yankees up by two runs to cap off the early comeback.

Buehrle, in case you were wondering, didn't make it past the 3rd inning. John Gibbons went to his bullpen in just the 4th inning. Buehrle was charged with six runs in nine hits, with a walk and two strikeouts.

It took David Huff just seven pitches to both record the final out of the 6th inning after replacing Kuroda, and then getting the first two outs of the 7th before handing the ball to Shawn Kelley, who needed six pitches to retire Dan Johnson for the final out of the inning.

Bautista hit a one-out double off the glove of Roberts in center field -- he was running backwards for the ball and it hit off of his glove while going for the over-the-shoulder grab -- but that was the only bad mark of a scoreless 8th inning by Dellin Betances.

Then David Robertson came on in the 9th, and he struck out two of the four hitters he faced to lock down his second save in as many days -- 26th of the year. Man, he and Betances could make a very deadly combo in the 8th and 9th for many years down the road. The Yankees first need to give Robertson the contract extension that he desperately deserves.

Chris Capuano will make his Yankees debut on Saturday, starting in place of Chase Whitley, who was moved into the bullpen on Friday. He'll be going up against RHP Drew Hutchinson at 1:05 pm ET.

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Game 102: Going for 17 straight

After a fairly disappointing first half of the season, the Yankees have been playing some good ball since the All-Star break, winning six of their seven games, including three of four against the Texas Rangers this week.

Now the Bombers welcome the Toronto Blue Jays to town, a team that has lost 16 consecutive games in Yankee Stadium dating back to 2012, including includes a pair of three-game sweeps this year. With the Red and Rangers out of the way, I'd say this could be a great end to what has been a pretty good homestand for the Yankees.

The second have of the Blue Jays' season has gotten off to just as good of a start as the Yankees. The Jays just took three straight games away from the Boston Red Sox this week, and are 5-2 since the break. The Blue Jays enter the game tied for second place in the AL East with the Yankees, who enter play just three games back of the division-leading Baltimore Orioles.

Toronto is dealing with several injuries that could play a factor over the weekend, with Edwin Encarnacion (quad), Adam Lind (foot) and Brett Lawrie (finger) all on the DL.

Tonight's lineup against Toronto:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
DH Carlos Beltran
1B Brian McCann
3B Chase Headley
RF Ichiro Suzuki
2B Brian Roberts
C Francisco Cervelli

* The Yankees announced today that they have designated RHP Chris Leroux for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for LHP Chris Capuano, who was acquired last night for cash in a trade with the Rockies. Capuano was added to the Yankees' big league roster, giving Joe Girardi four lefties in his bullpen. Overkill, if you ask me.

Pitching matchup preview:

Hiroki Kuroda, the Yankees' ace-by-default, will be on the hill for the Bombers tonight in the opener of this three-game series.

Making his second start of the first half, Kuroda last took the mound against the Reds last weekend, tossing 6.2 inning of shutout ball, giving up just three hits.

While the Blue Jays haven't beaten the Yankees in the Bronx since 2012, Mark Buehrle's losing streak against the Yankees is even longer, as the left-hander hasn't defeated the Yankees in over a decade.

And All-Star for the first time in five years during the first half of the season, Buehrle has not won a start since picking up his 10th win of the season on June 1, going 0-6 since then. He's now 10-6 with a 2.86 ERA this season.

Buehrle took the mound against the Rangers on Sunday in Toronto, giving up five runs on eight hits in six innings of work.

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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 9, Twins 7: Yanks hold on late to take series against Minnesota

After scoring just one run in 11 innings in Saturday, the Yankees' offense broke out once again on Sunday, scoring nine straight runs to open up the game against the Minnesota Twins, but the game tightened up in the final innings, and the Bombers were able to pull away with a 9-7 win, taking three of four games against the Twins at Target Field this week.

The Yankees pounded Twins starter Ricky Nolasco for six runs in the first two innings, including to in the 1st, Brett Gardner opened the game with a walk, Derek Jeter singled, then Mark Teixeira singled to batters later, scoring Gardner to put the Yanks on the board. The next batter, Brian McCann, doubled to deep right-center to drive in Jeter.

Brian Roberts, Ichiro Suzuki and Kelly Johnson kicked off the 2nd inning with back-to-back-to-back singles. Two batters later, Jeter knocked in Roberts on a sac-fly, then Jacoby Ellsbury smacked a three-run homerun to right field, his 5th of the season, to put the Yankees up 6-0.

Nolasco only lasted two innings, being tagged for six runs on seven hits. He walked one and didn't strike out anybody while tossing 42 pitches. Not his day.

Anthony Swarzak was the Yankees' next victim, as he was attacked for three runs in the 4th inning.

Ichiro and Johnson opened with back-to-back singles. Jeter singled two batters later to bring in Ichiro; Ellsbury grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Johnson; after Teixeira singled to move Ellsbury to third base, Ellsbury scored from third base on a Swarzak balk, making it a 9-0 game.

But the Twins didn't gave up, as they scored seven unanswered runs to make this a ballgame once again.

Hiroki Kuroda was pitching well for the Yankees -- he only gave up a hit through the first three innings before the Twins got all four of their runs against him in the 4th on five hits and an error -- an infield single scored the first run; and RBI double by Trevor Plouffe scored the second; then a two-run homerun by Chris Colabello made it a 9-4 game.

Kuroda managed to make it through 5 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts on 105 pitches. Not a bad outing from him; it could have been better.

The Yankees didn't do anything offensively after jumping out to a 9-0 lead, but the Twins added one run in each inning after the 6th, starting the streak against Adam Warren in the 7th, who was appearing in his 40th game of the season.

Minnesota put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out after Brian Dozier doubled and Eduardo Nunez singled, advancing to second on the throw to third. Chris Parmelee followed Nunez with a run-scoring groundout. Warren didn't have much control, walking the next batter, but struck out Oswaldo Garcia to end the inning.

Plouffe went deep off of Jim Miller in the 8th, hitting a solo homerun into the left-center field bullpen. The David Robertson entered the game in the 9th, looking for his third save of this four-game series. He struck out the first batter, gave up a pair of singles to put runners on 1st and 2nd, struck out Josh Willingham for the second out ahead of Arcia, who singled him a run to pull the Twins within two runs, but bounced back to get Kurt Suzuki to groundout to end the ball game.

Jeter, by the way, singled in his final at-bat of the game in the 9th inning. The hit was the 3,400th of his career.

The Yankees will head off to Cleveland now to start a four-game series against the Indians at Progressive Field. The Yankees announced today that Shane Greene will come up to make the start in the place of Vidal Nuno, who was traded to the D-Backs on Sunday. He and the Yanks will be facing Justin Masterson at 7:05 pm ET.

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Yankees 5, Blue Jays 3: Mark Teixeira drives in three runs to snap the Yanks' losing skid

Hiroki Kuroda fell behind early, giving up a run in the 1st inning, but the Yankees rallied back, took the lead this time after kept it after losing on Tuesday night, as the Bombers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night at the Rogers Centre.

Mark Teixeira told reporters after the game that is was a big win for the Yankees, who gained a game on the Jays heading into their off-day on Thursday before opening up against the Red Sox in New York on Friday, and he contributed in a big way, driving in three runs, two on his 14th homerun of the season.

Jose Reyes lead off the bottom of the 1st inning with a solo homerun off of Kuroda that put the Blue Jays up 1-0 before Kuroda could even settle in, which he did for the next four innings before Melky Cabrera knocked in a pair of runs in the 5th inning on a two-run single.

Kuroda worked well for the Yankees throughout the night, exiting with one out in the 7th inning. He tossed 6.1 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits, with two walks and four strikeouts on 102 pitches.

Kuroda left with the Yankees up 5-3, so let me tell you how the Yankees scored their five runs.

The Yankees' offense, which came to life for a couple of innings on Tuesday, hit Jays starter Drew Hutchinson for around the park for four runs that put the Bombers up 4-1.

Kelly Johnson walked to open the inning, then Francisco Cervelli doubled to score him, putting New York on the board. A couple of outs later, Jacoby Ellsbury singled home Cervelli, then Teixeira blasted a two-run homerun off of Hutchinson that made it a 4-1 game.

Hutchinson lasted six innings for the Jays, giving up four runs on seven hits, with two walks and six strikeouts.

After Toronto closed the gap to 4-3 on Cabrera's two-run single in the 5th, Teixeira tacked on another insurance run for the Yankees with a sac-fly in the 7th against Sergio Santos, scoring Brett Gardner, who walked, moved to second on a Derek Jeter hit-by-pitch, then advanced to third base on a wild pitch.

Shawn Kelley, Matt Thornton and Adam Warren all recorded one out each following after Kuroda, then David Robertson entered with one out in the 8th, recording his first five-out save of the season -- 17th overall on the year -- to seal the victory for the Yankees.

Following the Thursday off-day, Vidal Nuno will be on the mound for the Yankees when they open up a three-game series at Yankee Stadium, with Brandon Workman opposing him for the Red Sox at 7:05 pm ET.

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)

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Game 77: Losing isn't fun, so let's stop it tonight

Coming off of a fourth straight loss on Tuesday night, the Yankees are looking to rebound tonight in the finale of a three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, who took the second game of this series with a walk-off win on Tuesday, claiming a 7-6 win after Yangervis Solarte's wide throw to first base on a Melky Cabrera bunt scored Jose Reyes from second base to win the game.

The Yankees have now lost four straight going back to Saturday's game against the Baltimore Orioles, and currently stand 3.5 games behind Toronto in the AL East.

The Yankees, who somehow rallied back from a six run deficit last night thanks to a couple of homeruns by Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts, would like to escape the Rogers Centre with a win tonight ahead of tomorrow's off-day, and Friday night's series opener against the Boston Red Sox, in which Vidal Nuno will be on the mound for the Bombers (yikes).

Tonight's lineup against Toronto:

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

* Beltran felt some tightness in his right arm over the weekend, so the Yankees will shut down his throwing program, and he'll stick to being a full-time DH for the time being. The Yankees signed Beltran to a three-year, $45 million contract over the winter, and so far, I'd say it's not off to a great start.

* CC Sabathia will make his first rehab start on Saturday with High-A Tampa Yankees, according to manager Joe Girardi. Sabathia will throw about 40-45 pitches down in Tampa after throwing two innings on Tuesday with "no issues."

"It's good, he'll start again on Saturday," said Girardi. "Forty to 45 pitches. ... Everything came out well. Obviously, you're curious to see how he feels tomorrow, but he felt it was successful."

Pitching matchup preview:

Hiroki Kuroda will be the named tasked with trying to stop the Yankees' losing skid tonight. Kuroda's was pitching very well in his last start, against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, when he took a no-hitter in the the 6th inning before losing both that and the shutout in a span of four batters.

Kuroda is facing Toronto for the first time this season. He is 4-2 with a 2.82 ERA (44.2 IP, 14 ER) in his last seven starts against the Blue Jays, and is 4-3 with a 3.81 ERA in his last eight starts overall.

On the mound for the Blue Jays tonight is the right-hander Drew Hutchinson, who is looking to rebound after his last start against the Yankees after allowed four runs on six hits and was removed from the game in the fifth inning last week in the Bronx.

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