New York @ Baltimore preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 8, 2010 ) Baltimore 2, NY Yankees 3

The New York Yankees know they have their work cut out for them against the resurgent Baltimore Orioles heading into the first game of a three-game set on Friday.

The Orioles have nothing to play for right now, but have been a different team since Buck Showalter took over. They are 26-15 under their new manager and have won four straight series. New York, which sits a half-game back of the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East pennant race, has won 11 off 15 matchups with the Orioles to date, but the first 12 of those were before Showalter was in town.

The Yankees (88-58) head into this one hungry for a win. They dropped five of six games against Texas and Tampa Bay leading up to this series, four of which were one-run games.

New York still leads Boston by six games in the AL Wild Card, but the Yanks would like to secure the division to have home-field advantage in the playoffs. The Yankees were 7-1 at home during last year’s postseason.

The last time these teams squared off, Baltimore nearly bagged a series sweep. The Yankees needed a walk-off homer from Nick Swisher in the bottom of the ninth of third game of the set to take a 3-2 victory.

This time the Orioles (58-88) look to Kevin Millwood (3-15, 5.30 ERA) to get them off on the right foot. Millwood hasn’t won a home start since the All-Star break, going 0-4 with a 7.56 ERA. He went six innings, giving up two earned runs on eight hits the last time he took the hill in a 6-3 loss at Detroit.

It has been a terrible season for Millwood as he has just one win in his last 12 starts, while allowing at least five runs in seven of those games.

He’ll do battle with another pitcher who’s having a rough go this season, A.J. Burnett (10-13, 5.13 ERA).

It’s hard to know what you’ll get from Burnett these days. He held the Texas Rangers to two runs through four innings while striking out six in his last outing, a 7-6 loss that he took a no-decision in, but seems to be prone to a big inning at any time. He gave up 14 combined runs over two starts at the end of August and has walked at least three batters in five of his last six starts.

Burnett is 0-2 with a 5.27 ERA in his last two meetings with the Orioles.