Baltimore @ New York preview
Yankee Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 5, 2010 ) Baltimore 5, NY Yankees 7
The New York Yankees are starting to heat up.
Maybe it’s coinciding with the arrival of the warm weather, but there’s a good chance they will not be cooling off anytime soon.
Not with a string of 98-pound weaklings lined up waiting for the Bronx Bombers to kick sand in their collective faces.
The Yankees amassed a season-high 18 hits in Monday’s 11-2 victory over Cleveland, giving them three wins over the Indians in the four-game set.
New York was showing some troubling signs before Cleveland came to town, losing 11 of its last 18 games and scoring just 15 runs in its last six.
It was a different story against the Indians as the Yankees registering 37 seven runs in the series, with their only loss coming despite putting 11 on the scoreboard.
The Cleveland series kicked off a stretch in which New York plays 13 of 16 games against baseball’s three worst teams (Cleveland, the Baltimore Orioles twice and the Houston Astros).
That should prove to be a perfect elixir for the Yankees’ offense and give them a chance to make further inroads against the front-running Tampa Bay Rays, who still lead New York by three games in the AL East but have cooled off following their blistering start to the season.
Alex Rodriguez hit a grand slam and drove in six runs and the red-hot Robinson Cano homered and three in three runs to back the stellar pitching of Andy Pettitte in Monday’s series finale vs. Cleveland.
Cano extended his hitting streak to 14 games, during which he is batting .450 (27-for-60). He also has six straight multi-hit games.
None of this bodes well for the Orioles (15-36), who arrive in the Bronx with the worst record in the major leagues and riding a five-game losing streak.
Baltimore has scored the fewest runs in the American League and went belly up over the weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays, scoring just three runs in a three-game sweep.
Should we mention that the Orioles have lost five in a row to New York after winning the first meeting earlier this year?
Looking for a positive in Baltimore? That could come courtesy of the Yankees, who will send out struggling Javier Vazquez to the mound on Tuesday in the opener of the three-game series.
After showing signs of turning his season around with a pair of solid starts, Vazquez was tagged for five runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings last time out against the Minnesota Twins, falling to 3-5 with a 6.86 ERA.
Baltimore starter Brian Matusz (1-2) has lost both his starts to the Yankees this seasons - the Orioles scored a combined one run in the two losses - and has dropped his last five decisions.
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter left Monday's game with tightness in his hamstring. His status for Tuesday is unclear.