Yankees seek rare road series victory vs. Orioles
BALTIMORE -- The New York Yankees have experienced trouble at Camden Yards the past four years. They will try to turn some of that around in the series finale with the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.
The Yankees have lost 11 consecutive series in Baltimore dating back to a four-game set from Sept. 9-12, 2013, when New York earned three wins. New York split the first two games of the current three-game series and is 10-25 in Baltimore since the start of 2014.
The latest chapter in the rivalry had a memorable ending Tuesday when Manny Machado hit a walk-off, two-run homer that handed the Orioles a 7-6 victory.
Kevin Gausman (10-9, 4.79 ERA) will take the mound for the Orioles in the series finale against the Yankees' Sonny Gray (8-9, 3.36).
Gausman is coming off of two solid starts, as he threw a total of 13 2/3 scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays. He has been much stronger the second half of this season (5-2, 3.12 ERA in 10 starts after the All-Star break) and has a 7-4 career record with a 3.18 ERA versus the Yankees.
Gray came to New York in a July 31 trade with Oakland and is 2-4 with a 3.16 ERA in six starts with his new team.
The right-hander has a 1/3 career record against the Orioles with a 5.57 ERA.
The big pregame story Tuesday involved the New York Times article that talked about the Red Sox admitting to the commissioner's office that their trainers were receiving signals from video replay personnel and then relaying that information to some players.
New York alerted baseball to what it felt Boston was doing, and MLB officials corroborated the claims, according to the Times. The Red Sox also filed a counter-complaint against the Yankees on Tuesday, alleging New York uses cameras from its television broadcast on the YES network to steal signs.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi didn't want to comment directly on all of it, but when asked if his team did what it was accused of, he didn't hesitate.
"No chance," he said.
He also said that the situation isn't a surprise given the proliferation of electronics.
"It's the world we live in," Girardi said. "It's the competitive world that we live in that every team's always trying to get an advantage. I think electronics makes things easier, more accessible and more dangerous."
The Yankees called up first baseman Tyler Austin from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday in a September roster move. Austin played 10 games with New York this season.
The Orioles brought up outfielder Austin Hays from Double-A Bowie. He had a strong season with Class A Frederick and then Bowie. To make room for Hays on the 40-man roster, Baltimore designated pitcher Jayson Aquino for assignment.
Manager Buck Showalter said that the Orioles hope J.J. Hardy could finally come off the 60-day disabled list in the next few days. The shortstop was sidelined due to broken right wrist, but there is a different problem now -- a sore elbow from swinging the bat frequently.
"It looks like we're going to wait for the elbow to get a little better with swinging a bat for the time being," Showalter said.
