Baltimore Orioles (93-62) at New York Yankees (80-75), 7:05 p.m. (ET)
(SportsNetwork.com) - The New York Yankees try to keep their fading postseason hopes alive on Monday, as Derek Jeter resumes his final homestand in the opener of a four-game series versus the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium.
"I'm well aware that it's winding down, I'm always reminded of it," said Jeter. "I'm going to play as hard as I can until we're out of games."
New York won for the fourth time in five games on Sunday, as Brett Gardner hit the 15,000th home run in Yankees franchise history to snap a fifth-inning tie and Brian McCann homered twice in a 5-2 victory over Toronto.
Masahiro Tanaka (13-4), sidelined since early July with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, allowed hits to the first two batters, leading to a run. He then surrendered just three more hits with no walks and four strikeouts the rest of the way before being lifted with one out in the sixth.
"We got through today, so let's get through (Monday)," said Girardi. "Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope he feels good (Monday)."
McCann finished with three runs batted in for the Yankees and Jeter continued to shine in his final homestand with an RBI double.
Jeter went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and a run scored as the designated hitter Sunday after starting at shortstop for the first three games. He finished the series 8-for-17 with a homer and three runs batted in.
"Hopefully, he keeps getting two hits and decides he wants to play again next year," Gardner said.
New York, though, is 4 1/2 games back of the second wild card in the AL with just seven games remaining.
Getting the call for the Yankees on Monday will be righty Michael Pineda, who has lost his last three starts. Pineda gave up four runs (2 earned) to Tampa Bay on Tuesday and fell to 3-5 to go along with a 2.15 ERA.
Pineda, who has yet to record a decision in three appearances against the O's, has pitched to a 2.45 ERA over his last four starts and has received just one run of support.
Baltimore, meanwhile, will counter with lefty Wei-Yin Chen, who has won his last four decisions. Chen beat Toronto last Monday, holding the Blue Jays to a pair of runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings to improve to 16-4, while lowering his ERA a tick to 3.58.
With another win he'll become the Orioles' first 17-game winner since Mike Mussina went 18-7 in 1999.
Chen is 2-3 in eight starts versus the Yankees with a 5.76 ERA.
Baltimore has already won the AL East title and is 2 1/2 games back of the AL West champion LA Angels of Anaheim. The Orioles, though, didn't help their cause any this weekend, as they dropped two of three to the Boston Red Sox.
Prior to this weekend's series loss, though, Baltimore had won 10 of 11.
Baltimore has won 11 of 15 from the Yanks this season.