But Baltimore couldn’t contain Sanchez completely.
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Girardi said before the game that Headley would be back in the lineup at some point this week.
The Orioles have hit 200 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons. The 23-year-old went deep again Saturday, becoming the fastest player in Major League Baseball to reach eleven home runs (23 games).
“You want to win games”, said Sabathia, more frustrated by the two-out Nolan Reimold infield hit that eluded second baseman Starlin Castro with a weird spin. I don’t think so. It’s fun to watch.
“We’re in a pretty good mood at the plate and seeing guys hitting good”, Castro said, “like Gary”.
Orioles starter Kevin Gausman won his third straight start and was the culprit that prevented the Yankees from getting the three-game sweep.
It’s changed drastically in the past 12 games.
“This kid has instincts and makes adjustments”, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said about Sanchez.
“We flushed them. We weren’t looking back, ” he said.
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.
Sanchez, who had three hits, had a two-out single in the bottom of the first.
Baltimore has the worst average in the American League this season against left-handed pitchers batting an AL-worst.230 as a team.
Sabathia (4.31 ERA) had a strong and efficient beginning to his outing, but faded in the seventh inning.
“We had some other center field options”, manager Buck Showalter said. “They’re all challenging times and our guys always respond well”.
Sanchez is now hitting.400 with 21 RBIs in 21 games this year. Chris Davis homered twice and Mark Trumbo added his 39th, but it was hardly enough since Baltimore continued struggling on the mound. It’s great. Let’s see if I can keep on going. “Nothing really, really to it”. Sure, against Sabathia he probably would have hit a grand slam. Just out-hitting us. They’re doing what they need to be doing, and we’re not. Today, we are talking about them becoming a playoff team.
Jones grounded out to third to start Friday’s game and was pulled with a left hamstring strain in the second inning.
In the past two games, Orioles relievers have thrown 10 2/3 innings, and almost all the minor league pitchers on the 40-man roster have been used in the past eight days.
It was despite a solid performance from starting pitcher CC Sabathia, who was good early and fell apart as his pitch count inflated. With their influx of young talent, the Yankees have been rolling off victories, winning six of their eight series this month, splitting a four-game set with the Mets and dropping two of three to the Blue Jays.
His 1-for-4 day included a hit off Gausman.
Sabathia is 19-8 with a 3.33 ERA in 36 career starts against Baltimore.
With his two-run blast in the fifth inning of Friday’s 14-4 drubbing of the Baltimore Orioles, Sanchez became only the third player in Major League Baseball history to homer 10 times in his first 22 games, joining Red Sox first baseman George Scott and Rockies shortstop Trevor Story, who actually accomplished the feat earlier this season. NY had a chance to move within 1.5 games of the second Wild Card spot in the AL, but an offense that exploded for 27 runs in the first two games of this series suddenly went silent.
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In taking a quick look at the standings heading into Sunday, you’ll see that the Yankees are now fourth in the AL East at 5.5 back of first-place Toronto, while Red Sox and Orioles hold onto both wild card spots.
