Bronx series begins: O's at Yankees

Game Preview Orioles (41-50) at NY Yankees (54-37) After winning the final game of their series in Chicago, the Orioles begin a series in New York tonight. They'll look to end a seven-game losing streak at New York and begin to turn around their recent terrible record in AL East road games. While the O's are 12-8 at home this season vs. AL East opponents, they are just 1-11 on the road vs. the East. It gets worse than that. The Orioles are just 2-22 in the last 24 road games vs. the East. Since the beginning of the 2008 season, the O's have won just two of 15 road series vs. AL East foes with a record of 9-36 in those games. The O's lost three straight at Yankee Stadium from May 19-21 by scores of 9-1, 11-4 and 7-4. New York outscored the O's 27-9 in that series and hit seven doubles and seven homers in those three games. Pitching Matchups: Mon, 7:05p - David Hernandez (2-2, 3.94) v. Andy Pettitte (8-5, 4.85) Tues, 7:05p - Rich Hill (3-2, 6.92) vs. Sergio Mitre (3-1, 2.40 at AAA) Wed, 1:05p - Jason Berken (1-7, 6.44) vs. A.J. Burnett (8-4, 3.91) Gregg Zaun homered with 4 RBI and Jeremy Guthrie pitched eight solid innings Sunday as the O's beat the Sox, 10-2. The O's avoided being swept in a three-game series for the fifth time on the season. The Orioles have now won three of their last five and are 5-3 over the last eight. They are 16-14 in their last 30 games. The O's had 37 hits and a .319 team average at Chicago. They hit 12 doubles and three homers in the series. The Yankees just completed a three-game sweep of AL Central-leading Detroit by scores of 5-3, 2-1 and 2-1. The Yankees have won six of nine and are 16-5 over their last 21 games. New York is 3-0 on a 10-game homestand and the Yankees are 23-9 in their last 32 at home. Since May 8th, New York has the best record in the Majors at 41-22. New York has won six of its last seven series. Over his last 20 games, Alex Rodriguez is batting .347-10-24. He now has 572 career homers and needs just one to tie Harmon Killebrew for 9th place on the all-time homer list. He has hit five homers over the last six games. Mariano Rivera recorded his 508th career save on Sunday. He has recorded 38 straight saves at home since last blowing a home save chance on August 13, 2007 vs. the Orioles. The O's trail in the season series vs. New York, 3-6. They were swept three straight at Yankee Stadium from May 19-21. The O's went 7-11 vs. the Yankees in 2008. The Birds have lost their last seven games in New York and have lost 12 of the last 15 games played there. This year, New York has won 6 of the last 7 games between the teams. O's hitters, 2009 vs. Yankees: Andino: 1-14/0/0 Huff: 5-34/2/11 Izturis: 3-16/1/3 Jones: 14-36/2/6 Markakis: 12-35/3/7 Mora: 8-31/0/0 Pie: 4-14/0/0 Reimold: 4-10/1/1 Roberts: 11-37/1/3 Scott: 6-16/1/2 Wigginton: 6-19/1/4 Zaun: 7-20/0/2 The O's team average is .282 vs. New York this year. They have 16 doubles and 13 homers while scoring 43 runs vs. the Yankees. Their team ERA through nine games is 6.69 and they have allowed 20 Yankee homers.