Orioles avoid sweep in Bronx with 6-4 win

NEW YORK - Tim Beckham was slumping, the Orioles were sinking, and their shortstop figured he just needed to keep swinging.

It felt good to get back to winning.

Beckham's three-run homer off Sonny Gray in the top of the fourth gave the Orioles a little breathing room and Ubaldo Jiménez struck out 10 batters in five innings in a 6-4 victory over the Yankees before an announced crowd of 38,189.

It didn't qualify as a Bronx beating, with the Yankees rallying to within two runs, but the Orioles improved to 73-77 overall and 2-8 at Yankee Stadium.

Zach Britton recorded the four-out save by stranding two runners in the eighth, retiring pinch-hitter Chase Headley on a broken-bat bouncer to Beckham, and two more in the ninth. He issued an intentional walk to Aaron Judge with Jacoby Ellsbury on third base and two outs, and struck out Gary Sánchez.

Jiménez played the role of stopper, holding the Yankees to Didi Gregorius' solo home run and three hits, with only one walk. Today marked Jiménez's 19th career game with 10 or more strikeouts, and he came up one short of his season high on Aug. 11 in Oakland.

Mychal Givens entered in the sixth with Jiménez at 100 pitches, 54 for strikes. Jiménez was cruising, but also accumulating a lot of mileage.

Matt Holliday's two-run double off Givens with two outs in the sixth reduced the lead to 6-3. Richard Bleier stranded Holliday, and Darren O'Day retired the side in order in the seventh. Brad Brach surrendered an unearned run in the eighth after Judge's leadoff double and Beckham's throwing error, but Britton notched his 15th save.

Beckham grounded out and struck out in his first two at-bats, making him 10-for-63 this month and 5-for-37 in his last 10 games. But he crushed an 84 mph slider from Gray, sending the ball 456 feet to left-center field with an exit velocity of 107.5 mph per Statcast.

The Orioles led 5-1. They weren't going to be swept in this series, winning for only the second time in 11 games. They went 2-8 on the road trip.

Austin Hays collected his third RBI in less than 24 hours with a run-scoring single in the second inning. It came with two outs, brought Chris Davis home and gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

Trey Mancini doubled with two outs in the third to score Manny Machado, who singled, and give the Orioles a 2-1 lead. They had an immediate answer for Gregorius' home run. The non-shutdown inning was on the other foot.

Seth Smith led off the fourth inning with a walk, Caleb Joseph singled with two outs and Beckham unloaded. Again, the Orioles struck big with two outs.

The lead increased to 6-1 in the fifth on Smith's fielder's choice grounder after singles by Jonathan Schoop and Mancini.

The Orioles had to sweat a little, but it beat getting swept.

Note: Reliever Richard Rodriguez cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk.