With the way he has been swinging the bat lately Gary Sanchez is not only the player to watch in this game, he is the player to watch in all of baseball.
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He had some late offensive help-Steve Pearce, who drove in three runs and Mark Trumbo, who hit his 40th home run as the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 5-0 before 38,002 at Yankee Stadium on Sunday.
So while the Yankees couldn’t finish a sweep of the Orioles, they still took satisfaction in taking two of three and improving their chances of a playoff spot in the process.
Winning this divisional matchup could put them in place to only be 1.5 games back of the second wild-card spot. Oh, the rookie collected two hits, including a double, serving as the DH, but neither landed in another zip code, and the Yankees were hard-pressed to do anything against Gausman. He struck out nine and walked none to win his third start in a row.
“I think this kid has instincts”, Girardi said.
Gausman posted a rare road victory after going 0-16 in his previous 25 starts away from Camden Yards. He’d thrown well several times, but had nothing to show for it.
“I’m pretty relieved. It’s been kind of annoying here”, he said.
Hunter debuts: Newly signed reliever Tommy Hunter, who spent parts of five seasons with the Orioles before they dealt him to the Chicago Cubs on July 31, 2015, allowed a single and had a strikeout in a scoreless eighth inning before passing off to closer Zach Britton.
Gausman (6-10) has won three straight for just the second time in his career, and the first time since June 2014. “If someone says you’re going to win a series against Baltimore, I think you have to feel pretty positive about that”.
Sunday, the hard-hitting rookie catcher did not blast another homer – what, you thought that was an every day thing? – but he got two more hits.
Gausman’s last pitch resulted in a grounder that third baseman Manny Machado backhanded and threw from his knees from foul ground across the diamond for the out. This was Gausman’s fourth fine start against the Yankees this season and he finally wound up with a win, permitting only three earned runs in 27 2/3 innings during that span.
The game was scoreless until Pearce opened the sixth by driving Sabathia’s 2-2 fastball over the left field fence for his 12th home run.
Sabathia stymied the Orioles for most of the day, striking out eight and walking two.
The Yankees chances still aren’t that good, in part because the Orioles are much better than they looked Friday and Saturday and in part because it’s very hard to make up ground in such a crowded race.
Five pitches later, Pearce singled up the middle against Warren for a 3-0 lead. He also made a strong throw from right field to cut down Sanchez trying to reach third. It was Trumbo’s 40th home run, and he became the eighth Oriole to hit 40. My goal is just to go deep in games. “It’s such a lofty number”.
Baltimore has the worst average in the American League this season against left-handed pitchers batting an AL-worst.230 as a team. Girardi said he didn’t mind because he wants his team to be aggressive and because the shifting defense made it a good chance to take. Chris Davis (109 in 2013), Jim Gentile (119 in 1961), Brady Anderson (120 in 1996) and Frank Robinson (123 in 1966) were faster.
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Orioles: CF Adam Jones (hamstring) hasn’t played since an early exit Friday night. “We’ll see what tomorrow brings”. Manager Joe Girardi said Headley would start at some point this week.
