Yankees use big first inning to win, Orioles now six games out of first

The Orioles got three hits in a four-batter span in the top of the third tonight. Other than that, their offense was mostly shut down. Couple that with a poor first inning for Kevin Gausman and it added up to another loss at Yankee Stadium.

New York beat the Orioles 4-3 tonight to take the first two games in this series and drop the Orioles to six games out of first place in the American League East.

The Orioles fall to 46-47 on the year and have lost eight of 11 and 13 of 18 games. They are 5-7 against the Yankees, including a 1-5 mark in New York this season.

Four batters into the last of the first, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double and scored on Brett Gardner's single to center. One out later, Mark Teixeira hit a two-run homer down the right-field line. He hit No. 24 on a 1-2 Gausman changeup and it was 3-0.

Ryan Flaherty's two-run homer to right in the third briefly gave the O's some hope and made it 3-2. He hit his fourth homer on the first pitch, producing career RBIs Nos. 99 and 100 for Flaherty.

The lead grew to 4-2 on Alex Rodriguez's 20th homer in the fifth inning. That came on an 0-1 changeup and was his 65th career homer versus Baltimore pitching.

Chris Davis homered to right off Andrew Miller with two outs in the top of the ninth to pull the Orioles within 4-3, but Miller struck out Jonathan Schoop to end the game and record his fifth save in five chances this year against the Orioles.

In games decided by two or less this year between these teams, the Orioles are 2-6 with five straight losses. The O's fall to 12-16 for the season in one-run games, losing five of their last six such games.

Gausman falls to 1-2 with an ERA of 5.18, allowing the four runs on six hits in six innings. He threw 96 pitches, 62 for strikes.

Meanwhile, Ivan Nova held the Orioles to three hits over six innings to improve to 2-3 with an ERA of 3.34. He walked the first two batters in the fifth, but after a sac bunt advanced both runners, he retired Manny Machado on a nice backhand play by Chase Headley at third and got Travis Snider to ground out.

The Orioles went 0-for-5 tonight with runners in scoring position. They have scored just 37 runs the last 11 games and have scored three or fewer runs in 12 of their last 15 games.

A loss tomorrow would give the Yankees a three-game sweep and leave the Orioles seven games out of first place. Ubaldo Jimenez (7-5, 3.29 ERA) pitches against Masahiro Tanaka (6-3, 3.65 ERA).