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A-Rod’s Two Home Runs Power Yanks Over O’s, Back Into First Place
Baltimore, MD (Sports Network) – Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs, including a go-ahead three-run shot in the ninth inning, to power the Yankees past the Orioles, 4-3, in the opener of a three-game series.
The Yankees trailed by two entering the ninth before Jorge Posada hit a leadoff single against Koji Uehara (1-2), and one out later, Curtis Granderson singled. Mark Teixeira followed by popping out to third, but Rodriguez stepped in and blasted a 2-2 fastball to left field to put New York ahead.
“Unfortunate. Koji’s been pitching well for us. Just didn’t get it quite far enough in there, paid the price,” said Orioles manager Buck Showalter. “But they had a lot of good at-bats to get to that situation.”
Mariano Rivera threw a scoreless bottom half to secure the victory for New York, which improved to 2-5 on its current road trip. The win vaulted the Yankees back into first place in the AL East. They hold a half-game lead over the Rays, who lost to the Angels on Friday.
“We want to just take care of ourselves,” Rodriguez said. “We know we control our own destiny. We know what we’re capable of doing. We just want to get healthy and play good baseball.”
Rodriguez's two home runs give him 608 for his career, and he sits just one back of Sammy Sosa for sixth place all-time.
Robert Andino and Adam Jones homered for the Orioles, who had won three in a row. Kevin Millwood threw seven solid innings, giving up just one run -- a solo shot by Rodriguez. He allowed five total hits, walked four and struck out six, but took the no-decision.
Rodriguez hit his first homer in the second inning, a leadoff shot to left.
But the Orioles evened the game in the third, when Yankees starter A.J. Burnett hit leadoff batter Cesar Izturis. After Izturis stole second, he moved to third on a groundout before scoring on Nick Markakis' sacrifice fly.
Jones’ one-out solo blast to center in the fourth put the Orioles ahead, and they took a 3-1 lead in the seventh when Andino hit a two-out homer. It was the first homer of the season for Andino, who was playing in just his fifth game of 2010.
Burnett limited the damage to three runs over seven innings, in which he gave up six hits, walked one and struck out five.
Jim Johnson pitched a scoreless eighth for the Orioles, while David Robertson (4-4) set the Orioles down in order in the bottom half.
Rivera picked up his 31st save...Uehara blew his second save of the season...Andino’s homer was the fifth of his career (162 games)...New York had lost eight of 10 entering Friday’s game...Izturis went 2-for-2 and extended his hitting streak to six games.
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