Zach Britton on his four-out save, plus other Orioles notes

It was a first for Orioles pitcher Zach Britton.

His 39th career save was his first of more than three outs. This time, Britton got the last out of the eighth inning and all three in the ninth for his first career four-out save.

Britton said he was ready for this challenge, and if the club needs him to do it again, he's up for it.

"It is a little different, but that is why me, Dom (Chiti), Dave (Wallace) and Buck (Showalter) talked about going two innings in spring training," Britton said. "For that exact situation. I wanted to have one (two-inning spring outing) under my belt. It's an option. I don't want to be a just a guy that throws an inning if we need to get picked up for two innings or so. Want to be ready to have games like I did tonight."

As usual, Britton was calm, cool and efficient out there, needing just 12 pitches to wrap up the 4-3 win over the Yankees.

The bullpen has been struggling at times this year and Britton made sure that ended when he came into the game.

"As for the bullpen, we wanted to go in there and get him (Miguel Gonzalez) that win. It wasn't pretty but it worked," he said. "That is the thing - sometimes it is not pretty. Down in the bullpen, we've got some guys that are going to pitch better than they are pitching right now. Once we get on a nice little rhythm, it will be fine. But to get this W behind Miguel today was huge."

Britton is now 2-for-2 in save situations this season. He has struck out six batters over 4 1/3 innings on the year and has an 8-to-1 ground-to-air out ratio in 2015.

This game also featured a first for catcher Caleb Joseph - his first big league triple. He hit a shot to right in the seventh inning and scored the fourth run on Everth Cabrera's sac fly.

"I felt like a track star out there," Joseph said with a laugh. "No, I'm not going to hit many of them. Hopefully, they go over instead of hitting the wall. I was gassed, I'll tell you that. I was sucking wind there."

Center fielder Adam Jones drove in two more runs last night, going 1-for-3 with a first-inning homer off CC Sabathia.

"You just grind it out," Jones said of taking Sabathia deep. "The competition - obviously he is one of the best competitors in this game that we've had since I've been around. You have to bring your best because he always will."

Over his last five games, Jones is batting .647, going 11-for-17 with a double, four homers, eight runs scored and nine RBIs. In this stretch, he has a slugging percentage of 1.412 and an OPS of 2.062.

Jones is 5-for-6 this year with two homers and four RBIs against left-handed pitching. He is 4-for-7 with a homer and seven RBIs when batting with runners in scoring position.

The Orioles have now homered in five straight games - every game on this homestand - and in seven of eight games on the year. They've hit nine homers the last five games.

O's starters have pitched to an ERA of 2.08 in this series, going 13 innings allowing eight hits and three runs with two walks and 14 strikeouts.