 turned in his best performance of the year at a time when New York desperately needed a victory. He allowed six hits, walked two and struck out six. After giving up three runs in each of his first four starts, the 35-year-old Sabathia craftily used a variety of off-speed pitches to earn his first win in nine tries at Camden Yards since 2011.'' The changeup was good, the two-seamer was good,'' he said. ''It was just making pitches when I need to.'' Sabathia retired the side in order only once - in his final inning - but permitted just one runner past second base.'' His velocity is obviously not where it used to be, but he knows how to pitch,'' Orioles slugger Chris Davis said. ''You don't stay in this game that long not knowing how to pitch.'' Sabathia outdid Tyler Wilson (1-1), who took a one-hitter into the sixth before the Yankees took a 3-0 lead. New York added four runs in the eighth against the Baltimore bullpen.'' Something like this can get a team going,'' Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ''Hopefully it does.'' Ellsbury opened the game with a double and was thrown out trying to score on a grounder. His one-out single in the sixth, however, ignited the uprising that brought the Yankees out of their ugly slide. Ellsbury stole second, advanced to third on a single by Brett Gardner and scored on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Beltran. McCann followed with a two-out RBI single, and another run scored on a throwing error by Wilson. McCann's two-run double was the big hit in the eighth. Before the game, the Yankees put designated hitter Alex Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring. Despite a .194 batting average, A-Rod started the day tied for the team lead with 12 RBIs. That's a tough loss for a struggling offense. In this game, however, one run was enough. Despite allowing a hit in each of the first five innings, Sabathia kept the game scoreless. After Baltimore put runners on the corners with one out in the fifth, he struck out rookie Joey Rickard and retired Manny Machado on a liner to center. TRAINER'S ROOMYankees: New York will get a better idea of how long Rodriguez will be out when team doctor Christopher Ahmed examines him and the MRI. ''I'm going on the DL, so it's serious enough,'' A-Rod said. Orioles: Closer Zach Britton is closer to recovering from a jammed left ankle, but it will likely be several days before he returns. ''He's worth waiting on. We'll take it day to day,'' manager Buck Showalter said. UP NEXTYankees: Masahiro Tanaka (1-0, 2.87 ERA) makes his sixth start of the season in the series finale. He's allowed two runs in each outing. Orioles: Kevin Gausman (0-1, 2.45) seeks his first win of the season in his third start since coming off the DL. He had been sidelined with a shoulder injury.
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Time: 07:05 P.M. EST Venue: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
The last time the Baltimore Orioles won seven straight games against the New York Yankees, they went wire to wire to win the AL East. That can't happen this season, but they would gladly settle for pushing their reeling rivals deeper into the cellar. Baltimore has an opportunity to send the Yankees to their first seven-game losing streak in nearly a decade Wednesday night. Many of the issues that have plagued the Yankees this season were evident again in Tuesday's series-opening 4-1 loss. The offense was virtually non-existent, scoring two runs or fewer for the 13th time and going 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position to drop their season average to .201.'' When it comes down to it, the name of the game is scoring runs and we only did that one time,'' outfielder Brett Gardner said. ''That's not good enough.'' New York has been outscored 37-13 during its skid, and a loss Wednesday would leave it with its first seven-game slide since April 20-27, 2007. The Yankees (8-16) are off to their worst 24-game start since 1991.'' Unfortunately, I've been on teams that are down, and you want to take care of business,'' Baltimore's Chris Tillman said. ''You want to rack up the wins when you can. If a team is scuffling, you want to be at your best to capitalize on those opportunities.'' Tuesday's defeat was also their sixth in a row to the Orioles, who haven't had a longer run of success in the series since taking the last meeting in 1996 and the first six in 1997. They went on to win the division that season, finishing two games ahead of the defending World Series champion Yankees. Mark Trumbo provided the bulk of the offense in the opener with a pair of homers and three RBIs to back a stellar performance from Tillman. Baltimore (15-10) bounced back from consecutive losses to improve to 10-3 at home. Camden Yards hasn't been kind lately to CC Sabathia, who is 0-5 with a 5.64 ERA in his past eight starts there. The left-hander went 16-2 with a 2.74 ERA in his first 22 starts against the Orioles, but is 2-5 with a 5.06 ERA in the last 11. Sabathia (1-2, 5.06 ERA) notched his second quality start last Wednesday at Texas, allowing three runs over six innings in a 3-2 loss. That was a step forward after he failed to complete five innings in his two previous starts. Adam Jones is batting .311 with four homers and four doubles in 61 at-bats against Sabathia, while Nolan Reimold (.375), Trumbo (.313) and Manny Machado (.300) also have fared well. Machado went 1 for 3 with a double Tuesday and is batting .453 with five homers and 13 RBIs in 13 home games. Tyler Wilson (1-0, 3.06) makes his third start of the season for Baltimore after three relief appearances. The rookie right-hander fell short of his second victory Thursday against the Chicago White Sox, yielding two runs and four hits in 4 2/3 innings of a 10-2 win. Wilson tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief in his only appearance against the Yankees on June 14. Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez tweaked his right hamstring running out a grounder Tuesday and was removed for a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning.'' It wasn't a big pop,'' Rodriguez said. ''I've done that before in my career. I'm hopeful for the best. See how I wake up in the morning. Hopefully the good news is that I wasn't running very fast. We'll see what happens.''
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