Stephen Drew's pinch-hit grand slam lifts Yankees to the win in series opener

Adam Jones hit a very big home run tonight and then Stephen Drew topped him.

Jones' two-run homer in the sixth gave the Orioles a 4-2 lead over the Yankees, but then Stephen Drew hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the top of the seventh.

Drew's third career slam, which came on a 3-1 pitch from Tommy Hunter, put New York up by two and the Yankees went on to win 6-5 tonight in front of 21,633 in the opener of a three-game series at Camden Yards.

hunter-giving-buck-ball-white-sidebar.jpgHunter came on in the seventh after starter Wei-Yin Chen went six innings, allowing four hits and two runs on 89 pitches. He gave up a single and a walk to start the frame before getting two flyouts. Jacoby Ellsbury then beat out an infield single to second when Jonathan Schoop's throw to first bounced out of Chris Davis' glove.

Drew then came up to pinch-hit, batting just .150 (3-for-20) for the season. But he turned around a 95 mph two-seamer for the lead.

Alejandro De Aza had led off that O's sixth inning with a double to right and moved to third on a groundout with one out. But Davis struck out for the third time in the game and the tiebreaking run remained 90 feet away.

But not for long.

Jones took an elevated 91 mph Michael Pineda cutter over the outside corner, and hit it out of the park to left-center for a two-run homer and 4-2 lead. It came on a 1-2 pitch and was his third homer.

Over his last four games, Jones is 10-for-14 (.714) with three homers and seven RBIs.

It was also his 92nd career homer at Camden Yards, putting him ahead of Brady Anderson in sole possession of second place.

New York took a 1-0 lead on Chris Young's solo homer in the top of the second and the Orioles went up 2-1 in the bottom of the inning.

jones-white-home-run-fist-bump-sidebar.jpgJones led off with an infield single and advanced to second on a groundout. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Manny Machado and Schoop followed. Machado's two-bagger snapped his season-opening 1-for-19 stretch. For Schoop, it was his sixth RBI in his last three games.

But the Yankees tied it 2-2 in the fourth on Mark Teixeira's solo blast to left. It was the 366th homer of his career as he moved into a tie for fifth all-time among switch-hitters.

Down 6-4 after Drew's slam, the O's pulled within 6-5 in the seventh on De Aza's fielder's choice grounder. But Davis struck out for the fourth time in four at-bats to end the frame as the O's left the bases loaded.

The Orioles bullpen has now been scored upon in every game this year as the club falls to 1-3 on this homestand and 3-4 on the season. In their last three losses, O's pitching has allowed 28 runs.

For New York (3-4), former Oriole Andrew Miller picked up the save, getting the last five outs.

Now the Orioles need to regroup for Game 2 of the series Tuesday night, when Miguel Gonzalez (0-1, 1.59 ERA) pitches against CC Sabathia (0-1, 6.35 ERA).




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