American League Game Summary - New York at Baltimore
Baltimore, MD (SportsNetwork.com) - Miguel Gonzalez struck out a career-high 10 over seven very effective innings, and the Baltimore Orioles survived another shaky effort from their bullpen to record a 4-3 win over the New York Yankees.
Gonzalez (1-1) held a Yankee offense that had put up 20 runs over its previous two games to just one on four hits, helping Baltimore even this three-game series after blowing a seventh-inning lead in Monday's 6-5 loss.
New York nearly staged a late comeback again, however, scoring twice in the eighth before Zach Britton snuffed the rally with a four-out save.
Adam Jones aided Gonzalez's outstanding effort by driving in two runs and homering for the third time in as many games. Caleb Joseph added a pair of hits, including an RBI single, for the Orioles.
While Gonzalez was terrific, the Yankees received a second straight solid but unspectacular start out of CC Sabathia (0-2). The onetime Cy Young Award winner was reached for four runs and fanned seven over seven innings.
"I feel pretty good," said Sabathia, whose 2014 season was cut short by knee surgery after eight starts. "I'm commanding the ball pretty good, but I just need to tighten up a few things."
Gonzalez was staked to an early lead courtesy of Jones, who hammered a fastball into the seats in left in the first inning for his fourth career homer off Sabathia.
Jones knocked in another run in his next at-bat with a third-inning sacrifice fly that brought in Everth Cabrera, whom Sabathia walked on four pitches and advanced to third on Manny Machado's single.
Delmon Young extended the margin to 3-0 an inning later by reaching on a swinging bunt and later beating Carlos Beltran's throw to the plate on a soft two-out single from Joseph.
The Yankees didn't generate nearly as much success against Gonzalez, who stranded early doubles from Beltran and Chris Young and retired 10 straight following a walk to Stephen Drew in the second inning.
"I think everything started in the first inning, minimizing the damage and throwing all my pitches for strikes," Gonzalez said. "Keeping them off balance throwing in(side). And Caleb did a really good job back there."
That streak came to an end when Jacoby Ellsbury singled and came around on Mark Teixeira's two-out double in the sixth, but Gonzalez regrouped to finish his strong outing by striking out the side in order in the seventh.
Joseph led off the bottom of the seventh with a triple to deep center and crossed the plate on Cabrera's sac fly to extend the lead to 4-1.
"We had some timely hitting," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "Caleb's triple, pushing across that fourth run was big."
Indeed it was, as the Yankees' offense sprung back to life when facing Kevin Gausman in the eighth.
Singles by Didi Gregorius and Chase Headley put runners on the corners and after Beltran plated a run with a groundout, Teixeira's long drive to left went off the glove of Alejandro De Aza for an error that cut the lead to 4-3 and brought Britton into the game.
The Orioles closer promptly retired Brian McCann to strand Teixeira at second, then worked a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his second save of the season.