Orioles trying for better results in the Bronx

No longer bogged down by a lengthy losing streak, the Orioles close out their road trip at Yankee Stadium, where they've lost five of six games.

Their only win came on April 30 and it required 11 innings, the last two covered by Logan Verrett, who has since been designated for assignment and outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles were swept in a three-game series June 9-11, losing by a combined score of 38-8. Dylan Bundy, Chris Tillman and Kevin Gausman totaled 10 2/3 innings and allowed 19 runs.

Bundy turned in a quality start in the opener by allowing three runs in six innings, but the Yankees scored three unearned runs off Edwin Jackson in two-thirds of an inning and Stefan Crichton allowed two runs in 1 1/3 innings in an 8-2 loss.

Tillman surrendered nine runs and seven hits in 1 1/3 innings in a 16-3 loss - Crichton and Jackson combined to allow five runs and nine hits in 2 1/3 innings - and Gausman permitted seven runs and eight hits and walked six batters in 3 1/3 innings in a 14-3 loss.

The Orioles designated Jackson for assignment before the series finale. He's 5-5 with a 3.88 ERA in 10 starts with the Nationals, but he's allowed nine earned runs (10 total) and 12 hits in two starts this month over nine innings.

Gausman won't pitch in the upcoming series after starting last night in Toronto. Bundy probably will receive extra rest again, leaving Tillman as the only possibility this weekend among the group.

Left-hander Wade Miley starts tonight and he continues to lead the majors with 84 walks. He's faced 24 batters in each of his last four outings while throwing 100, 101, 100 and 102 pitches.

I mention this purely out of my own interest.

Miley is 0-3 with a 4.83 ERA and 1.589 WHIP in nine career starts against the Yankees. Starlin Castro is 3-for-24 (.125).

Masahiro Tanaka registered three quality starts in a row and five in six starts before the Rangers scored seven runs in four innings in an 11-5 win over the Yankees. Tanaka didn't walk a batter and he struck out seven.

Tanaka has faced the Orioles twice this season at Camden Yards, allowing three runs and walking four batters in five innings on April 8 and seven runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings on May 31. He's 1-2 with a 3.72 ERA and 1.117 WHIP in seven career starts against the Orioles, averaging 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

Seth Smith is 5-for-14 (.357) against Tanaka and Adam Jones is 6-for-18 (.333) with a double and home run.

Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop are 4-for-20. Machado has two doubles and a home run, and Schoop has one double and two home runs.

Jimmy Yacabonis made his major league debut on June 11 in the Bronx - he showed up the day that Jackson left - and was charged with four runs in one inning. Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer off him.

Yacabonis' last two appearances came against the Yankees at Camden Yards and he shut them out over 2 2/3 innings. He hasn't surrendered a run this month in 5 2/3 innings, earning his first two major league wins, but there have been some loud outs, including Steve Pearce's line drive to left field on Sept. 1 that stranded a runner in the top of the 13th inning. Schoop delivered a walk-off RBI double in the bottom half.

In one of his finer moments, Yacabonis started off Yankees second baseman Castro with a 96 mph fastball and struck him out looking at a third consecutive slider.

A 13th-round pick in 2013 out of St. Joseph's University, Yacabonis was 4-0 with a 1.32 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in 41 appearances at Triple-A Norfolk. He surrendered 30 hits, walked 28 batters and struck out 48 in 61 1/3 innings.

"I definitely think that to transfer over the success from Triple-A is just getting ahead. That's what I did down there," Yacabonis said.

"Just not try to put too much pressure on myself to make the perfect pitch. Just getting ahead and kind of go from a broader spectrum to start and get more fine as the at-bat goes on. Try to pinpoint later in the at-bat rather than early and just get ahead in the count and rely on the movement of my fastball to get early outs.

"I think that's going to be huge. And also, and I did it down there, being able to throw the slider and changeup in the fastball counts. And once I get comfortable with that up here, it's going to let my fastball play up even more."

Advice comes from all corners, and not always from pitchers or the instructors who work with them.

"Talking to (third base coach) Bobby Dickerson about that, too," Yacabonis said. "He was saying a lot of times when guys come up here they try to switch what they were doing down in the minor leagues because it's a different atmosphere, but it's the same game. Just have to keep the same course, keep the same preparation and just do the same thing pretty much and try to stay comfortable. Don't try to do too much. That's when it will go awry."

Asked what Yacabonis can do moving forward to stick on the major league roster, manager Buck Showalter tweaked the inquiry.

"More important, somebody you can trust, and that's going to come with command and throwing the ball over the plate," Showalter said.

"He's got some strange numbers in Triple-A in some ways. His hits-to-innings are off the chart, but his walks are a challenge and he doesn't strike that many people out, which means there's a lot of weak contact against him when he throws the ball in the zone. And let's face it, he was very fortunate those two outings that some hard-hit balls were right at somebody that turned into double plays. So you do try to keep that in mind, but he feels good about himself right now and we'll run with it."