Tonight's starters: Miguel Gonzalez vs. Hiroki Kuroda (updates)

Here are a few notes on tonight's starting pitchers for the series opener at New York: Miguel Gonzalez (5-3, 3.66 ERA) will make his 13th appearance and 10th start for the Orioles tonight. He has not pitched since allowing eight hits and four runs in five innings on Aug. 20 at Texas. In four August starts, Gonzalez is 2-1 with a 2.42 ERA and has allowed just one homer and a .237 average against over 26 innings. In his nine outings as a starting pitcher, Gonzalez is 5-3 with a 3.95 ERA and the Orioles are 6-3 in those games. The right-hander is 3-1 with a 3.06 ERA in five road starts and he has three quality starts among those games. Gonzalez has road wins at New York, Los Angeles and Cleveland. He also pitched seven scoreless innings on the road against Tampa Bay and David Price, but did not get a decision in that game. In his only previous start against the Yankees on July 30, he pitched 6 2/3 innings and gave up six hits and four runs. He left after allowing back-to-back homers in the seventh to Eric Chavez and Ichiro Suzuki. Hiroki Kuroda (12-9, 2.98 ERA) will start tonight for the Yankees, making his 27th start. He has three complete games, two shutouts and an opponent average of .237 in 2012. Over his last eight starts, Kuroda is 4-2 with a 1.66 ERA. Over his last five home starts, he is 3-1 with a 0.94 ERA. In 15 home starts on the season, he is 9-4 with a 2.22 ERA and two shutouts. The Orioles have faced Kuroda just once this year and they lost to him on April 30. That night, the right-hander gave up just four hits and one run over seven innings. He walked one and fanned three and needed just 87 pitches to go seven innings in that game. Left-handed batters are hitting .253 off Kuroda this year and right-handed batters are hitting .213. A couple of other notes: * Against the AL East this year, the Yankees are 25-21 and the Orioles are 26-20. * When their starting pitcher provides a quality start this year, the Orioles are 53-8 and when their starter goes seven innings or more, they are 30-2. Gonzalez has recorded a quality start in five of his nine starts and has pitched seven or more frames three times with two other starts where he went 6 2/3 innings. * The Yankees have scored in the first inning in seven of their last 12 games. They have 100 runs in the first inning this year, their most in any inning. Reynolds rapped one: The Orioles took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second on a Chris Davis sac fly and a Mark Reynolds two-run homer. Reynolds reached the second deck at Yankee Stadium as he connected on a 2-0 pitch from Kuroda. Reynolds' last homer was on Aug. 16 vs. Boston. Reynolds did not have a single RBI and had just one extra-base hit over his last 12 games, a double, before his homer tonight. Gonzo in the sixth: In his toughest inning of this game to date, Gonzalez got out of a big jam in the sixth to keep the Orioles ahead 4-0. The first two reached on a single and walk and then he got out the next three hitters at the top of the Yankees order. Derek Jeter grounded into a fielder's choice, Nick Swisher struck out on a nice changeup and Robinson Cano fouled out to third. Gonzalez threw just 55 pitches in the first five innings. He threw 24 in the sixth but kept the Yankees of the board.