New York @ Baltimore preview
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Last Meeting ( Sep 17, 2010 ) NY Yankees 4, Baltimore 3
The New York Yankees will look to add to their lead in the AL East on Saturday after a dramatic comeback win over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.
Third baseman Alex Rodriguez smashed a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning off Baltimore closer Koji Uehara to lift the Yankees to a 4-3 win. It was his second homer of the night and his 25th of the season to move the Yankees (89-58) a half game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays in the division.
It was only New York’s third win in its last 10 games, a stretch in which the club has played eight one-run games.
On Saturday, the Yankees will hand the ball to CC Sabathia, who is looking for his 20th win of the year. Sabathia (19-6, 3.03 ERA) already leads the league in wins and is among the league leaders in strikeouts (179) as well as innings pitched (217).
The Cy Young Award candidate received a tough no-decision in his last outing, allowing just two hits over eight scoreless innings in a 1-0 loss to David Price and the Rays.
That effort came on the heels of one of Sabathia’s worst starts of the season. He gave up a season-high six runs and nine hits in a 6-2 loss to Baltimore earlier this month.
Jeremy Guthrie (10-13, 3.74 ERA) gets the call for Baltimore (58-89). Guthrie heads into this one having won three straight, allowing only two runs over that stretch. He blanked the Detroit Tigers over seven innings in his last start, giving up five hits while striking out four.
Guthrie is now 7-3 with a 2.38 ERA over his last 10 starts and leads the team in wins, ERA and innings pitched. However, he has dropped six straight starts against the Yankees, posting a 6.19 ERA.
The Orioles have won nine of their last 12 games to move to 26-16 since Buck Showalter took over as manager.
Center fielder Adam Jones has certainly done his part. He belted his 19th home run of the year on Friday night and is now hitting .409 with five RBIs and five runs scored over the last week. Baltimore still only manages 3.78 runs per game.
New York, which is 12-4 against Baltimore this season, has won 41 of its last 58 meetings with the Orioles.