Chris Davis expands Orioles lead and ties Frank Robinson (O's lose 7-5)

Yankees right-hander Ivan Nova started off Chris Davis with an 81 mph curveball in the bottom of the fifth inning. Davis supplied all the power, homering to center field with Henry Urrutia aboard to give the Orioles a 4-1 lead. Davis has 49 home runs this year to tie Frank Robinson for second place on the club's single-season list behind Brady Anderson, who hit 50 in 1996. Davis and Robinson share the record for most single-season home runs hit in Baltimore with 27. Robinson did his damage in 1966 at Memorial Stadium, of course. Anderson hit 19 homers at Camden Yards in 1996. J.J. Hardy reached on an infield hit and Brian Roberts singled to spark the rally. Urrutia reached on a slow roller to shortstop Eduardo Nunez, who threw wildly to first and allowed Hardy to score the tying run. Score it an infield single and E-6. Nick Markakis lined to left fielder Alfonso Soriano, and Roberts scored when Alex Rodriguez inexplicably cut off the throw. Catcher Chris Stewart held out his arms and looked into the dugout. Soriano stared a hole through Rodriguez. Meanwhile, Yankees manager Joe Girardi accused Rodriguez of stealing Soriano's throw. Davis crushed the curveball with two outs, another one of his no-doubters. The Yankees fought right back, with Soriano and former Oriole Mark Reynolds homering in the top of the sixth to reduce the Orioles' lead to 4-3. Kevin Gausman was warming in the bullpen. Miguel Gonzalez has allowed three runs and six hits in six innings, with no walks, six strikeouts and two home runs. He's thrown 94 pitches, 65 for strikes. Update: Gausman replaced Gonzalez in the seventh and struck out two in a 1-2-3 inning. Orioles starters didn't issue a walk on back-to-back nights. Now it's the seventh inning stretch and John Denver's singing about how he's gonna rosin up the bow. And that's not a euphemism. Tonight's attendance: 25,697 Update II: Gausman faced three batters in the top of the eighth. Rodriguez doubled, Robinson Cano singled to tie the game and Soriano homered to give New York a 6-4 lead. Soriano has 37 career multi-homer games. The Yankees weren't done. Francisco Rodriguez came in and allowed back-to-back doubles to Curtis Granderson and Reynolds. Update III: The Orioles got a run back in the bottom of the eighth against Shawn Kelley, using a Davis walk, two wild pitches and a Matt Wieters sacrifice fly to reduce the Yankees' lead to 7-5. Wieters leads the majors with 10 sacrifice flies. Mariano Rivera, going for the four-out save, retired Nate McLouth to end the eighth. Josh Stinson struck out the only batter he faced in the ninth. Brian Matusz has replaced him. Update IV: Game over. The Yankees score four runs in the eighth and defeat the Orioles 7-5. Both of Gausman's major league victories have come against the Yankees. They tagged him with a loss tonight. The Orioles six-game home winning streak against New York comes to an end. The Yankees move within a half-game of the Orioles for third place in the American League East. The Orioles are now 17-9 in two-run games.