Yanks Go Two Games Over .500 For First Time Since Early April, Shut Out O's, 5-0

On another beautiful night in the Bronx, the Yankees shut out the Baltimore Orioles in game three of the four games set. Michael Pineda started for New York tonight and pitched his way in and out of trouble in his six innings of shutout work, improving to 4-9 and actually lowering his ERA to 5.25. For Baltimore, Yovanni Gallardo fell to 3-2 while raising his ERA to 5.69 as he got knocked around the ballpark all night long while watching his offense get shut down for a third consecutive night by the Yankee pitching staff.

Miraculously, tonight the Yankees snapped a franchise record of futility; 23-game streak without scoring in the first inning. Brett Gardner led off the first with a triple and scored when Carlos Beltran hit a sacrifice fly to center with one out, giving New York a 1-0 lead. It was the first time that the Yanks have touched home plate in the first inning since June 21st when Alex Rodriguez grounded into a double play that scored a run in Colorado.

Mark Teixeira extended the Yankee lead to two in the bottom of the fourth when he belted his eighth homerun of the year, a line drive solo shot to right field that left the ballpark in about two seconds. The long ball was an especially crucial run considering Pineda just got out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the top of the frame, needing 81 pitches in total to get through the first four innings.

The Bombers continued their offensive on slot in the bottom of the sixth in support of Pineda's outstanding outing. Jacoby Elsberry let off the frame with a single and advanced to second when the All-Star slugger Carlos Beltran surprised everyone in the ballpark when he laid a bunt down to beat the shift for a base hit. McCann walked to load the bases and then Gallardo walk Teixeira to force in a run, extending the Yankee lead to three. In the bottom of the seventh, Gardner hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Torreyes, who had tripled off Gallardo with one out, making it 4-0 Yanks.

Carlos Beltran stayed hot as he went on to launch his 20th bonb of the season in the bottom of the eighth against Oriole reliever Chaz Roe that extended the Yankees lead to 5-0.

Pineda was outstanding tonight, pitching six innings of shutout baseball, allowing just five hits while walking two and striking out eight. Delin Betances, Nick Goody and Chasen Shreve combined to throw three perfect innings as they completed the shout out and extended their winning streak to four.

C.C. Sabathia will get the chance to complete the four-game sweep tomorrow afternoon in the final game of the series, with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 PM/EST.